The Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission determined the peculiarities of importing into the Eurasian Economic Union's customs territory electronic commerce goods purchased by natural persons to which non-tariff regulation measures apply.
"The draft resolution was prepared in connection with the last year adoption of amendments to the Customs Code of the Union introducing the category of e-commerce goods," explained Andrey Slepnev, EEC Minister in charge of Trade. "The document stipulates that practically all purchases made by natural persons will be subject to a regime that does not worsen the situation for natural persons importing currently authorized goods for personal use."
In particular, it remains possible to import devices with encryption components (smartphones, smart watches). Simultaneously, the importation of precious stones and precious metals, medicines, special software and hardware, pesticides, ozone-depleting, poisonous, narcotic and psychotropic substances, weapons and a number of other goods is prohibited.
The ban is designed to protect citizens of the Union countries from low-quality and unsafe products. Meanwhile, with regard to medicines, it was decided to address the issue of making it possible to import them in the future. The possibility for natural persons to import other categories of goods will also be addressed, taking into account the respective interest of the EAEU Member States.
The adopted decision on non-tariff regulation is expected to come into effect after 30 calendar days have elapsed from the date of its official publication. However, this will happen no sooner than the enactment of amendments to the Customs Code, which, in turn, will become effective after all EAEU countries have completed the relevant internal legal procedures.
At the same time, Andrey Slepnev reminded that taking into account the identified category of e-commerce goods, a number of other decisions would also be taken in the near future, which concern, among other things, the issues of customs and tariff regulation.
