Illegal export of agricultural products from Ukraine
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The relevance of the study is determined by the need to fill the budget in the conditions of martial law and the beginning of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. The key task of our country's export policy is to increase exports, primarily to the countries of the European Union, but in a legal way that will not lead to the blocking of existing customs crossings by neighboring countries. Currently, the movement of goods outside customs control or hiding them from customs control is considered illegal export. Mostly, violations of this kind in Ukrainian legislation are punished only by appropriate fines and confiscation of products. However, for certain types of goods, the existing punishment has been strengthened, for example, during the pandemic, criminal liability has been established for hiding anti–epidemic goods from customs control. Overcoming the consequences of Russian aggression and raising the level of the population's well–being, as well as reducing the negative balance of payments necessitates the need to increase the volume of domestic food exports. The purpose of the article is theoretical and applied substantiation of ways to reduce the illegal export of agricultural crops. The specified goal forms the hypothesis that identifying the ways of illegal export and implementing measures to improve the export capabilities of domestic agricultural producers will significantly reduce the risks associated with the illegal export of agricultural products. Research methods. The dialectical method of research, economic–statistical and systemic and complex analysis of the market environment in crop production in Ukraine is applied.Work results. It has been established that it is now expedient to distinguish four main methods of illegal export of agricultural products, namely violation of customs procedures, «gray» export, smuggling and theft in the occupied territories. Each of the methods was considered in detail, and an expert assessment of the volume of illegal export was carried out according to the above methods. According to the first method, as a rule, the enterprise exports agricultural products to EU countries without documents confirming the purchase of the corresponding products. In addition to this, this type of enterprise also understates its income and in this way evades payment, for example, income tax, etc. It was established that the second method of illegal export of agricultural products is tax evasion. At the same time, the most common scheme of such tax evasion is the purchase for cash of a certain type of agricultural products that do not have documents of origin and their further export abroad using the details of front companies. The third method of illegal export was also analyzed, namely the smuggling of agricultural products from Ukraine. The fact of this smuggling can be established only by comparing official statistical data on the export of these products from Ukraine and, for example, Russian statistical data on the import of our products. The consequences of the fourth method of illegal export of Ukrainian products, namely their theft in the temporarily occupied territories with subsequent export to other countries, are considered. Conclusions. As a result, priority measures to reduce the volume of illegal export of agricultural products from Ukraine are substantiated.
Authors: Melnyk, Tetyana, Budziak, Vasyl
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6892907132