Acceptance of Belarus EAEU Certificates by Russian Customs

                                                                    BELLIS Letter Ref. No.: 631 dated 26.06.2020

                                                  Attn.: EAEU Market Participants

On acceptance by Russian Customs authorities of EAEU conformity approval documents issued by Belarus Certification Bodies

Dear Partners,

Due to multiple inquiries received from the EAEU market participants, herewith we provide clarification on the current situation on acceptance of EAEU (EAC) Certificates by Russian Customs authorities when submitting customs declaration to release products into circulation to the Russian/EAEU market.

Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has confirmed in its official Resolution that in accordance with the EAEU legislation, Customs authorities must accept EAEU Certificates/Declarations without requesting any additional documents (EEC Letter No.: ГВ-635/25 dated 19.03.2020): “Customs authorities of (EAEU) Member States shall ensure acceptance of the documents on conformity assessment to the requirements of CU/EAEU Technical Regulations, issued (registered) at the territories of any (EAEU) Member State, with respect to goods imported from third-countries to the territories of the (EAEU) Member States and further release of such goods with these documents. Herewith the request, stipulated by clause 3 of the (EEC) Council Decision No.: 20 (dd 28.04.2017), relates to receiving information on the CU/EAEU conformity assessment documents themselves from national parts of the unified Register of issued Certificates and registered Declarations and not additional documents confirming performance of (conformity) assessment and fulfilling requirements to (conformity) assessment”.

Information from our Customers and Partners confirms that EAEU (EAC) Certificates issued by BELLIS Certification body are without restrictions accepted by Russian Customs authorities for the purpose of customs clearance of goods for their further release to the territory of Russia/EAEU. In case of requesting by officers of the Russian Customs posts of additional documents (single incidents at a few customs posts) which is a violation of the EAEU legislation, the incident is promptly solved by issuing by the Certification Body of a clarification letter confirming the validity of the EAEU Certificate and providing the EAEU Certificate official copy.

As we informed previously, the Applicant for EAEU (EAC) certification of series manufactured products can be either a manufacturer (including a foreign manufacturer) or a Local Representative (LR) in EAEU authorized by the manufacture. If the Customer decides to use a Local EAEU Representative instead of a foreign manufacture as an Applicant, it can only be a Local Representative which is an importer (releases products into circulation at the territory of EAEU). Decision of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council No.: 10 dated October 25^th, 2019 “On some issues of using the term “local representative authorized by manufacturer” with respect to representatives authorized by foreign manufacturers”: “EAEU Member States in course of releasing products for circulation at their territories shall assume, that the Applicant during conformity assessment of series manufactured products in compliance with the requirements of the EAEU Technical Regulations can be only that local representative authorized by manufacturer defined in paragraph 28 of clause 2 of the Protocol on Technical Regulation within the Eurasian Economic Union (Annex 9 to the EAEU Treaty), that carries out activities on behalf of the manufacturer during release of products for circulation at the territory of EAEU and bears responsibility for non-compliance of products with the requirements of the EAEU Technical Regulations.”

Thus as we informed and promised, actions of the Russian Customs authorities with respect to non-Russian EAEU (EAC) Certificates/Declarations have been recognized by the Eurasian Economic Commission and EAEU Member States (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kirgizstan) as a violation of the EAEU legislation, are unlawful and shall be stopped.

Thank you very much for your appreciated cooperation.