Certification of goods for custom clearance purposes in Russia or Eurasian Customs Union

Articles

Certification of goods for custom clearance purposes in Russia or Eurasian Customs Union.

Why do we need certification and what are the main difficulties?

Certification is a system of checking the conformity of products with the requirements and standards adopted in a certain territory (for example, the European Union or the Eurasian Customs Union) or a country, following which, if the decision is positive, the goods can be imported.

Certification documents are mandatory for customs clearance of goods.

The main problem that the companies face during import to Russia is the large number of regulatory bodies and different types of certification procedures. It is not easy to pass it without relevant knowledge or experience

Types of Certification procedure

There are three main types of certification procedures depending on goods or industries:

  • Declaration of conformity
  • Certificate of conformity
  • State Registration of the goods

Goods, which have never been officially delivered to Russia, previously are classified as new products by Russian Customs and have to be checked and certified by state before delivery. The application process usually takes about 6-7 weeks.  

Q: If goods have already been sold in Russia officially, do we still need certification?

A: The answer depends on the type of the certification procedure.

Speaking about State Registration, if the goods have already passed the State Registration procedure and been imported to Russia, then you don’t need to go through the same procedure again as it has already been registered.

Speaking about Declaration or Certificate of conformity, importer need to undertake certification procedures every time you import the products if Declaration or Certificate was released for individual cargo or for certain period and its already expired.

Q: Is the letter of exemption from mandatory certification included in any of the certification procedures?

A: Similar products can be combined in one certification procedure and document. It means that during the examination of the products you will know whether the company is required to apply for one or several certificates that completely depend on the certain goods. Speaking about letter of exemption, you have to get it before the examination in order to prove the customs service you have the right to be exempted from certification.

Documents

You need the following documents before the start of the certification procedure:

1. Recipes, specifications, description of the goods including all technical information, ingredients and parts of the product

2. Certificates

3. GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and ISO Certificates

4. Labels

5. Sampling report for goods

6. Certificate of incorporation and Charter of the company

7. Contract for the execution of the functions of the foreign manufacturer  

8. Letter of attorney for your representative

9. Samples

All documents have to be translated into Russian and verified by the certificated translator

Labeling

"Label" is the information about products that the company tags the goods with.

Usually the label contains the following information: 

a) Ingredients

b) Volume

c) Shelf life of the product

d) Security warnings 

e) "EAC" ("Eurasian Conformity") sign (for the goods imported to territory of the Eurasian Community).

According to the Russian packaging and labeling rules, if product is produced at one place and then imported to another, it has to be stated on the label. For example, "Producer: X AG, Xstr. 100, Paris, France. State of origin: Spain". We highly recommend to take this rule into consideration.

Please, note:

In accordance with the technical regulations of the Customs Union, for the goods subject to compulsory certification, it has to have the "EAC" sign on them and their package before importing the goods to the Customs Union territory. If the goods are not marked with “EAC” sign, the customs service can refuse to proceed the clearance and fine the declarant for the administrative violation (the sanction is from 50.000 to 300.000 RUB both with or without confiscation of the goods).

f) Producer

g) Importer

Main steps of the certification procedure

  1. Preparing and collecting the documents and information
  2. Providing the product’s samples
  3. Laboratory tests in state authorized laboratories
  4. Filing the application to state authority

Terms

After providing all necessary documents, certification procedure takes approximately from 3-4 Weeks to 6-7 Weeks (the duration of the procedure varies depending of the certain goods, for example, the certification of the nutritional supplements usually takes around 10-12 weeks)

The cost of the certification procedure

The costs of the certification vary depending on certain goods. Our fees for certification services depending on certification procedure could range from 5.000 RUB to 250.000 RUB for most complicated cases, such as certification of Biologically Active Dietary Supplements (BADS), which requires complicated and long-term laboratory test.

The cost includes:

  • preparing of all the documents concerning the application (certification of company documents, drawing up the Contract for the execution of the functions of the foreign manufacturer, certificates of origin of goods and others).
  • costs of laboratory test and analyzes
  • verification and execution of contracts with the laboratory
  • preparing and submitting the application form to the state authorities
  • state duties and fees
  • interaction with authorities

The cost DOES NOT include: translation and notary costs; apostille and other additional costs.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any additional questions or adjustments.

Автор: