A textile manufacturing company approached the Business Ombudsman Council with a complaint. The company was unable to obtain an EUR.1 certificate from customs, which is required for exporting goods from Ukraine.
Customs authorities argued that the company’s products did not meet the criteria for heading 60 under the Regional Convention on Pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin.
The Complainant independently identified that the Ukrainian translation of the Convention deviates from the original English version, which caused confusion and difficulties in obtaining the certificate. To support the complainant, the Council advised the company to submit an official request in order to receive a written decision regarding the EUR.1 certificate. After sending this request to the regional customs office and following several consultations, the company was issued the EUR.1 certificate.
Following the successful issuance of the certificate, the company asked the Council to facilitate additional communication to ensure that similar issues would not arise during future shipments.
In an effort to prevent similar situations in the future, the Business Ombudsman Council initiated a discussion with the State Customs Service of Ukraine. As a result, the Customs Service confirmed that the English version of the rules would be applied going forward when issuing EUR.1 certificates, which reduces the risk of misinterpretation for exporters.
After the company successfully obtained EUR.1 certificates for several export shipments, and the consistent application of this approach was confirmed by the Customs Service, the Council closed the case, considering the issue resolved in favor of the complainant.
