THE LATEST GLOBAL TRENDS, RISKS AND DEVELOPMENTS ON BUSINESS

November 3, 2016

Major positive changes for Ukrainian exporters

Ukraine, together with many other post-Soviet countries, has been known for excessive bureaucratic barriers making it more difficult to do business in the country. Today, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a draft law* which makes it much easier to export goods and services from Ukraine.

In particular, according to the new law:

• the issuance of an invoice by a Ukrainian exporter/service provider will be sufficient for Ukrainian regulatory purposes, and there will be no legal requirement to sign contracts and “acts of acceptance” with foreign counterparties and translate them into Ukrainian; and
• when the parties decide to enter into written contracts, they can do so by an exchange of emails.

This is a major change compared with the currently existing rules. These require the parties to sign written contracts, in Ukrainian, and to also sign “acts of acceptance” in order to be able to execute the transaction, no matter how small.

As such, the draft law is another step towards making Ukraine a more business-friendly environment. It will become effective after it is signed by the President and published.

If you would like to know more about the subject covered in this publication, or our services, please contact Dmytro Fedoruk or Rob Shantz.

* The draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Lifting of Administrative Barriers to Exports of Services”, No. 4496.