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Read about what happened last week in Ukraine and the world, and what is relevant and interesting for the furniture expert, in our digest:<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. The Ukrainian government approved a draft law that brings the Customs Tariff of Ukraine into compliance with the requirements of the International Convention on the Harmonized System of Description and Coding of Goods. The country needs this in order to increase its own exports, enter new markets, and strengthen its competitive advantages in world trade.<\/p>\n Ukrainian business also needs many intermediate import goods in order, for example, to establish processing production. In this context, the new Customs Tariff will promote the revitalization of mutually beneficial trade and make our economy stronger.<\/p>\n The current Customs Tariff of Ukraine is built on the basis of the 2017 version of the Harmonized System of Description and Coding of Goods, and the 2022 version is already in effect in most countries of the world. It is used by Ukraine’s largest trade partners, in particular, the EU, Turkey, China, the USA, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n In this connection, a number of complications arise related to discrepancies in product codes during customs clearance of products imported to Ukraine, or when comparing customs statistics of Ukraine and trading partner countries. That is, more than 350 changes will have to be made in the commodity codes, mainly for agricultural, chemical, forestry, etc. goods.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. Ukraine will receive a “customs visa waiver” already this year! Last week, the Joint Committee of Conventions on Joint Transit and Simplification of Formalities made an official decision to invite Ukraine to join them from October 1. Ukraine will become the 36th state party to these Conventions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3. Domestic business continues to adapt to wartime conditions and in August slightly weakened negative assessments of the prospects of its economic activity. This is evidenced by the results of the NBU’s monthly survey on the business activity expectations index. At the same time, the respondents emphasized that further recovery of their economic activity is restrained by:\u00a0uncertainty with the duration of the war and related deterioration of inflationary expectations; further destruction of production facilities and infrastructure; significant forced migration of the population within the country. Enterprises of all sectors of the economy continue to expect an increase in the price of their own products\/services against the backdrop of rising prices for raw materials and supplier goods. Employment estimates also remain subdued. Representatives of all sectors do not expect an increase in the total number of employees.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4. On September 14, during the “DREMA” exhibition in Pozna\u0144, the seventh meeting of the National Furniture Congress “Polish Furniture – Competitive Poland” will be held. The motto of this year’s meeting: “How to increase profitability in the face of new challenges.” The organizer of the event, the Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Furniture Manufacturers, invites everyone who is interested in the furniture industry to take part in the congress. It would not be out of place for the representatives of our industry to attend this meeting, because we can also benefit from the thoughts of our Polish colleagues on how to increase the profitability of the furniture industry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5. This year’s German exhibition for the furniture business “M.O.W. 2022” will take place on September 18-22. More than 500 exhibitors from 41 countries are expected to participate in it. The organizers appreciate such a solid representation, as well as the demand for business meetings, especially in these difficult times. And they emphasize that the exhibition will be useful for everyone who sells furniture products – both of their own production and as a dealer. Exhibitors will offer alternative supply chains and new products in their portfolio, finding solutions that go beyond existing supply channels, which is especially important in these difficult times. Innovations in design, materials and furniture technologies will be no less important. “M.O.W.” has always been an ideal platform for the presentation of prototypes ready for series production. This is extremely important, especially now that furniture sales have fallen due to the rising cost of energy and living in general, as well as significant restrictions on trade.<\/p>\n\n\t\t