The state cannot have \u201cour\u201d or \u201cyour\u201d data. All of it is state-owned and should serve its purposes. However, practice proves the opposite. Each state body has \u201cits\u201d data, holds on to it with both hands, as if it were the highest value, and is terribly reluctant to share it. Sometimes to the point of ridicule, sometimes to indignation. We are like a progressive digital state with an exemplary and truly very convenient \u201cDiya\u201d \u2014 literally a supermarket of state services. But behind this window is a Soviet farm shop with empty shelves, sales from under the floor, accounting in barn books, and most importantly, a frank reluctance to become even a supermarket. We will prove this with a specific example, and, despite the topic, it will not be boring: quarrels, intrigues, blackmail, sabotage, and even a little conspiracy theory lie ahead.<\/p>\n
Last fall, the State Statistics Service stopped publishing data on foreign trade in goods. Anything happens, but month by month \u2014 and here it is May 2026, and there is still no data. What worried few people at the beginning is now greatly straining everyone who works with this data \u2014 from analysts and journalists to the Ministry of Economy and the National Bank of Ukraine, which use it directly in their work. Without this data, neither macroeconomic nor budgetary planning is possible, control of customs duties and export-import “shadow” does not work adequately, any state analytics and forecasts are stalling. But, as we see, there is no panic.<\/p>\n
YOU WILL BE INTERESTED<\/p>\n
The main problem of our foreign trade is internal
\nEven more annoying is the explanation from the State Statistics Service, which has been hanging on the relevant page all this time instead of the usual information about foreign trade:<\/p>\n
“The State Statistics Service has not received, in accordance with the Agreement on Information Cooperation, from the State Customs Service in full administrative data on customs declarations… which makes it impossible to form and disseminate information in a timely manner.”<\/p>\n
That is, the customs service suddenly stopped providing information to the State Statistics Service and has been sabotaging this transmission to this day. This is already interesting. Even more interesting versions of why the customs officers resorted to this sabotage.<\/p>\n
The official version of the Customs Service sounds simplified as follows. It is said that the service, once again rereading the Customs Code, realized that it had been misunderstanding its Article 452 for literally years and could actually provide the State Statistics Service only with depersonalized information on export-import operations.<\/p>\n
Actually, this depersonalization literally makes it impossible for the State Statistics Service to work with customs data, because its methodology involves obtaining the entire array of detailed data, and not a short note \u201cseparate changes have occurred in certain areas.\u201d The biggest complaint about this version is the time lag of six years, because the last time changes were made to Article 452 was in 2020, and if this explanation is to be believed, then it is worth sending the entire staff of the customs service to the PISA test, which determines the ability of schoolchildren to understand reading.<\/p>\n
And the very formulation of the problem is strange: detailed data on the foreign economic activity of specific companies is hidden from the State Statistics Service, which regularly collects data on the activities of companies and individual entrepreneurs to form official state statistics. That is, you can know about the balance sheets, financial results, production volumes and personnel of the State Statistics Service, but who imported or exported goods from the country – how much?<\/p>\n
However, another version of the reasons for the sabotage is being circulated in the backrooms of the customs service – a letter from the SBU, which literally forbade customs officers from distributing non-depersonalized data on the supply of goods. They say that customs databases can be bought at every step, it is time to finally stop this disgrace.<\/p>\n
Firstly, in principle, nothing has changed since November, customs databases can still be easily bought on the black market. Secondly, anyone who has seen such databases at least once will confirm that they are customs, not state statistics. There is a difference, for “gourmets” a purely customs data set immediately catches the eye, and we have always seen only it in “merged” databases.<\/p>\n
In addition, our sources in the SBU confirm that the customs service did indeed receive a letter of restrictions from the SBU, but it did not concern all goods in general, but only dual-purpose ones. This is an exhaustive and understandable list, which certainly does not constitute the entire array of data that customs officers have stopped providing to the State Statistics Service.<\/p>\n
However, there is a third version of events, even more behind the scenes, and most importantly, confirmed by us in various unrelated sources: sabotage of customs is revenge. That’s right, the State Customs Service is taking revenge on the State Statistics Service for its reluctance to share with customs officers the statistical reports of specific soybean and rapeseed producers. This is quite a twist.<\/p>\n
Let us recall that in the fall of 2025, a 10% duty was introduced on the export of soybean and rapeseed, but those producers who export their own products were exempted from it. Since then, the process of qualitative monitoring of the origin of soybean and rapeseed has become a real headache for the state, because where there is a benefit, there immediately appear those who want to obtain it illegally. Therefore, there is no need for interesting reports that producers submit to the State Statistics Service, because, unlike all other reports, they are usually never underestimated. Therefore, comparing these reports with data from the tax or Chamber of Commerce and Industry would indeed be an interesting exercise for customs.<\/p>\n
And we can only hope that they would resort to these comparisons exclusively with good intentions. But… by law, the State Statistics Service does not have the right to transfer statistical reports of specific manufacturers.<\/p>\n
Yes, again “your” and “our” information, but in this case it makes sense, because it is the security of this data and the absence of direct motives to lie to the State Statistics Service that guarantees that the data will be correct, and the country will operate with accurate information. Therefore, the State Statistics Service did not resort to deliberate violation of the law, and literally immediately the provision of data from the customs service stopped. In essence, this is blackmail at the level of state bodies, which has been going on for more than half a year without any consequences for the blackmailers.<\/p>\n
Of course, the State Statistics Service is not sitting with a sad face, but is actively trying to find a reasonable solution to an absurd problem. We started with Denys Shmyhal, who, as the first vice prime minister, is responsible for everything in the world, including statistics. It was November last year. Shmyhal instructed the Ministry of Digital Affairs to understand the situation. They did not understand it. With all due respect to Mr. Shmyhal\u2019s managerial experience, the Ministry of Digital Affairs is definitely not the ministry that can influence the customs service. Here, even an instruction from the Ministry of Finance is not a fact that would help. Moreover, all this time, at the official level, the customs have been insisting that the reason is in Article 452 of the Customs Code, and the code is definitely higher in legal force than some kind of Agreement on Information Cooperation.<\/p>\n
Actually, because of this \u201cofficial\u201d reason, it will no longer be possible to solve the problem quickly, that is, simply resume the provision of data. Yes, the customs now has a new head, former NABU detective Orest Mandziy. But, on the one hand, we are sure that exchanging information with the State Statistics Service should not be his primary problem, and on the other hand, experienced colleagues-customs officers will definitely reach him first with their version of events. So, despite all the illegality of the reasons that led to this situation, it will be resolved exclusively in a legal way.<\/p>\n
Currently, the State Statistics Service is working together with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Digital Economy, aimed at amending Article 452 of the Customs Code. It is clear that this is not a quick process, and the forecast received by officials from legislators is the end of this year. Anyone who has followed the exceptional unproductiveness of the Ukrainian parliament recently understands that the forecast is very optimistic. All this time, the country will live without official statistics on foreign trade.<\/p>\n
By the way, the only winner will be the customs service that created this mess, because the absence of this data, among other things, will not allow analysts to see the real export-import picture and assess the integrity of customs officers not based on the results of re-certifications, but on specific actions. Here is a little conspiracy theory for you.<\/p>\n
What do we have in the dry residue? First of all, confirmation of the degradation in state administration, during which the absence of official statistics for more than half a year did not become an institutional scandal. We have evidence of the extremely low importance of the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the inability of the department to solve core tasks. Right after Pynzenyk \u2014 if you want apples to disappear, create a ministry of apples. And the whole story in general demonstrates that both the scale of the problems and the ways to solve them are not even small, but trivial. And the government’s inability to fix everything quickly and correctly only worsens the situation. The customs service, the culprit of the scandal, will not only not bear any responsibility \u2014 it is the only one who comes out of this story as a winner and without complaints. In the end, instead of a public flogging and immediate resumption of data transmission, we will receive the next amendments to the Customs Code, because our codes will tolerate anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after their adoption, the State Customs Service is also thanked for its fruitful cooperation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The state cannot have \u201cour\u201d or \u201cyour\u201d data. All of it is state-owned and should serve its purposes. However, practice proves the opposite. Each state body has \u201cits\u201d data, holds on to it with both hands, as if it were the highest value, and is terribly reluctant to share it. Sometimes to the point of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11080,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11078\/revisions\/11080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporativ.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}