February 20, 2024

Unified electronic information system of foreign trade operations

  1. There are several types of “registration” of export-import contracts in Uzbekistan. Some contracts are subject to state registration, and accordingly, by virtue of the Civil Code of Uzbekistan, they are considered concluded from the moment of such registration. Some contracts are subject to expertise or other approvals, depending on the object of the transaction, the status of the parties, etc. But in any case, any export-import contract is subject to registration in the Unified Electronic Information System for Foreign Trade Operations (UEISFTO), to which the servicing bank, tax, and customs authorities have access. Most often, accounting refers specifically to accounting in the UEISFTO.
  2. The legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan does not stipulate that registration in the UEISFTO is its registration, much less state registration. Therefore, it cannot be considered that an export-import contract is considered concluded (to be valid) from the moment of its registration in the UEISFTO.
  3. Nevertheless, without recording the contract in the UEISFTO, the Uzbek counterparty will not be able to fulfill its obligations under the contract, in particular, to pay for and carry out customs clearance of the goods. In other words, it can be said that without the contract being recorded in the UEISFTO, such a contract will be unenforceable on the part of the Uzbek counterparty.
  4. In practice, many importers, in order to avoid the dual situation when a contract is signed and entered into force, but cannot yet be executed (because it is not registered in the UEISFTO, has not undergone examination, etc.), consider the condition of its entry into force from the moment of passing these procedures.
  5. Unfortunately, judicial practice has not yet determined its unambiguous attitude to such conditions. In such cases, we usually proceed on the assumption that a frequently used provision of the contract “…. The Contract shall enter into force upon written notification by the Buyer to the Seller of the Contract’s registration in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan…” will be interpreted as a conditional transaction, i.e., when the parties have made the emergence of rights and obligations under the contract dependent on a condition precedent, namely the receipt (sending) of “written notification by the Buyer to the Seller of the Contract’s registration in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

For our side, we generally recommend, at a minimum, defining what kind of “contract registration” we are talking about (where by whom, and when) and within what period the party responsible for registration must notify the other party of the registration (entry into force of the contact). At most, we are stating that a condition precedent cannot be controlled by (dependent on) one of the parties. However, this is a theory, which is not favored in Uzbekistan.