The Eurasian Customs Union (EACU) is a customs union which consists of all the Member states of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The customs union is a principal task of the Eurasian Economic Community, established in 2000, and now succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union. No customs are levied on goods traveling within the customs union and—unlike a free trade area—members of the customs union impose a common external tariff on all goods entering the union. One of the consequences of the customs union is that the Eurasian Union negotiates as a single entity in international trade deals such as the World Trade Organization, instead of individual member states negotiating for themselves.

It came into existence on 1 January 2010. Its founding states were Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. On 2 January 2015 it was enlarged to include Armenia. Kyrgyzstan acceded to the EEU on 6 August 2015. The original treaty establishing the Customs Union was terminated by the agreement establishing the Eurasian Economic Union, signed in 2014, which incorporated the Customs Union into the EEU’s legal framework.
The member states continued with economic integration and removed all customs borders between each other after July 2011. On 19 November 2011, the member states put together a joint commission on fostering closer economic ties, planning to create a Eurasian Economic Union by 2015. On 1 January 2012, the three states formed a single economic space to promote further economic integration. The Eurasian Economic Commission is the regulatory agency for the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Community.

Export

• When exporting goods, a zero-rated VAT is guaranteed and (or) the exemption (refunds) of excise taxes if sufficient documentary evidence has been provided (proof of export).

Imports

• Imported goods into the territory of the Russia from the territory of Belarus or Kazakhstan are subject to VAT and excise duties and are levied by the Russian tax authorities.

87.95% of customs import duties come from Russia’s budget, 4.7% from Belarus and the remainder from Kazakhstan.

Access of products to the single territory of the Eurasian Economic Union – EAEU (Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan) – formerly Customs Union is granted after products have proved to be compliant with the requirements of Customs Union Technical Regulations which are applicable to the product. As of September 2016, 36 Customs Union Technical Regulations have been developed covering different types of products. Some Technical Regulations are being still developed. Here you can see the list of developed CU TRs.

There are two types of conformity assessment procedures – Certification (CoC) and Declaration (DoC). List of products which are subject to Certification and Declaration is provided in the relevant CU Technical Regulations. The customer can always choose to order CU Certificate instead of CU Declaration.

For Declaration of Conformity the Applicant must be a local entity registered at the territory of a EAEU Member Country. The range of Applicants for Certification is defined in the relevant Technical Regulations (e.g. for CU TR 004/2011 Safety of low voltage equipment and CU TR 020/2011 Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) the Applicant can be either a Manufacturer including a Foreign Manufacturer of local EAEU entity).

All conformity assessment works (testing/inspection/certification) can only be done by local Certification Bodies/Testing Laboratories accredited in the EAEU Member countries by their National Accrediting Authorities. However where the EAEU countries are Members of International Organizations (such as IECEE), competent national Certification Bodies in EAEU accredited in the same International Organizations (if we speak about IECEE, the list of EAEU Certification Bodies accredited in IECEE you can check via the following link) have the legal right to recognize the works results of the National Certification Bodies from the other Member countries of these International Organizations.

For products which successfully passed the CU EAC conformity assessment procedure – a CU EAC Certificate is issued (see example of CU EAC Certificate). All Certificates/Declarations are officially registered (by the Certification Bodies) in the Registers for CU EAC Certificates/Declarations maintained by each Member Country. The term of validity is defined in the Certificate (it can be up to 5 years). For series manufacturing Certificates -there’s mandatory annual surveillance procedure (performed via sample test or factory inspection).

Products complying with all applicable CU Technical Regulations shall be marked with mandatory EAC Mark.
The EAEU Member countries managed to agree on unification of requirements for most of categories of products/services (that is CU Technical Regulations). However:

1. There are areas where national requirements are valid in each member country. E.g. for RF (radiotelecommunication) appliances/modules. It is not currently planned to develop unified requirements in the EAEU for this type of products, but things may change someday. As of today, it is not expected that unified requirements in EAEU for radio-telecom appliances/modules would appear earlier than the year 2020.
2. Due to uneasy process of development of Technical Regulation System in EAEU, the national member countries are starting to implement national requirements in the areas strategically important for these countries in the absence of proper quality unified EAEU Technical Regulations. e.g. Belarus introduces mandatory national energy efficiency requirements for electrical products on its territory from 01.02.2017.