Malaysia partially confirms forgery of certificates of origin for rolled steel deliveries to Ukraine – customs
The State Customs Service of Ukraine in 2024 revealed a sharp decrease in imports of coated rolled steel of Chinese origin and an extraordinary increase in imports of similar goods supposedly of Malaysian origin, the first responses from Malaysia to requests from Ukrainian customs officers confirmed suspicions of forgery of certificates of origin, said Deputy Head of the State Customs Service Vladyslav Suvorov.
"Currently, out of hundreds of requests we sent to Malaysia, we have received only 26 responses confirming that the certificates of origin that were provided during customs control... were not provided by the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. And here there is a clear forgery of the country of origin," Suvorov said at the conference Trade Wars: Art of Protection organized by the Ilyashev & Partners company in Kyiv.
According to him, for example, 22,000 tonnes of rolled products supposedly of Malaysian origin were imported into Ukraine in 2024, and 1,500 tonnes of bars.
"At the same time, before the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade made a decision regarding such goods of Malaysian origin, there were none in 2023. We understand that the market of origin is being manipulated here," he said.
He clarified that the requests to Malaysia are sent within the framework of the authority to verify certificates of origin. The responses received have already been sent for post-audit.
As reported, by amendments to the legislation that came into force in October 2024, customs, if there is information about the falsification of certificates of origin, may require additional documents confirming the production of such goods in a specific country and the logistics of their delivery to Ukraine before registration. In October last year, the National Police initiated a criminal case on the facts of possible forgery of certificates of origin of steel fasteners and coated carbon steel rolled products originating from Malaysia.
