The European Union has adopted several packages of restrictive measures against the Russian Federation due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and against the Republic of Belarus in light of the situation in that country. These measures prohibit the direct or indirect import or export of certain goods, as well as the intentional or unintentional involvement in activities to circumvent these prohibitions. They also establish that Member States will apply sanctions in the event of these rules being violated.
Given the risk of circumventing these measures, customs authorities are increasing control measures on customs declarations of goods exported to third countries that could be diverted to the Russian Federation or Belarus. This countries include the Republics of Armenia and Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as Turkey and Serbia.
To ensure compliance with these measures and facilitate customs control of goods export clearances affected by these circumstances, it may be necessary to provide additional information with the clearance documentation such as the end use of the goods and the type of industry for which they are intended, a comprehensive description of the goods with datasheets, photographs or catalogues, or the location of the recipient. It is also advisable to include provisions in export contracts to ensure that the goods do not ultimately reach the countries where the restrictions apply. For example, these provisions may take the form of a declaration that compliance with such a provision is a key element of the contract, or contractual clauses obliging the importer located in a third country to not export the goods in question to Russia or Belarus, and to not resell them to third party trading partners who do not commit to not exporting them to Russia or Belarus, thereby creating liability for them if they do so.
Our customs department is available for any information that you may require.
Group Arola
