Russia bans imports of some goods

According to Russian Customs reports, since March 1, 2019, any tobacco products for sale can only be imported from abroad with special chips (i.e. RFID electronic identification). The chip is specially designed for product identification. This will increase the additional costs of exporters.

According to the list of commodities released in April 2018, besides tobacco products, the commodities that were restricted in 2019 also included shoes, perfume, clothing and other personal belongings.

Since July 1, 2019, shoes that are not equipped with chips can not be imported, but from December 1st onwards, clothing, bedding, perfume, tires, cameras and flashlights, and other commodities, no chips are prohibited from importing to Russia.

Policy Extension

According to the State Trade Administration Law of the Russian Federation, on April 28, 2018, the Russian Government promulgated the Government Order No. 792-, which implements the mandatory tag management of electronic identification (RFID) for ten categories of goods, such as shoes, overcoats and so on. The government decree will come into force on January 1, 2019.

The Russian government pointed out that the Mandatory Label Management List of Commodities should reduce the circulation of counterfeit products in Russia, taking into account the particularity of the market and the conditions of commodity circulation in the relevant markets. Up to now, Russia has implemented labeling management for fur products in January 2016 and drugs in August 2016, in which the labeling experiment of drugs has been extended to the end of this year.