Customs Union between Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan
1/07/2010- Common External Boarders & Common Customs Code
As from the 1rst of July a Common Customs Code will be in force and the External Boarders will be common to the three countries which means goods will be cleared only once when entering the CU territory.
Main points for economic operators:
Objective of the CU– to create a single market as it exists in the EU in 2 years time-2012;
Transitional Period – it will be possible to use the current Customs Declaration and all the Official Documents that are recognized by each of the CU Partners until the end of the year;
Certification and Standards– until the Single Market enters into force each Country will maintain its own Standards, Certification Requirements and Laboratory tests. Certification documents will only be valid in the country that requires them. – there is an ongoing harmonization process to follow EU and internationally recognized Standards-ISO. There will be a List of Mutually Recognized Products;
Origin– CU Partners will maintain the CIS Rules of Origin;
Trade Policy Instruments– from now on the CU will have the competence to impose Anti-Dumping, Anti-Subvention and Countervailing Duties in its territory;
Complaints– if there are problems when clearing the goods the complaints should be presented to the Customs Authority of the country where the problem occurred;
Product Classification– regarding the inconsistency and different classification of products, works on ways to minimize the problem are pending. Russia is taking a lead in this matter as they will be monitoring the classification and application of the HS;
Intellectual Property Rights– business operators are very concerned about IPR Protection and control at the Kazakh Boarder since the legislation is this country is less stringent than in the other two CU Partners. The new common legislation was still in preparation;
Information to Business Operators– business operators present at the meeting insisted that it would be useful to have a Contact Point to answer any questions arising from the entry into force of the new regime.
However insisted that in future all the legislation would be available in English.