Release of goods by a customs authority pursuant to the EAEU Customs Code

Importers have constantly been faced with the term customs clearance during the importation of goods. It comprises various customs procedures including release of goods.

Release of goods is a customs authority’s action allowing the importer to proceed with doing business with goods according to the declared procedure and on terms prescribed for certain categories of goods.

The release speed is critically important for participants of international business activities (IBA). One of the goals of a customs service in the modern context is to promote the speeding-up of completion of customs formalities and the turnover of commodities in general. Prolongation of time to release may not only lead to missing a deadline to deliver goods by the declarant but also cause additional expenses of participants of IBA.

Terms for release of goods

Registration of a declaration for goods (hereinafter – DG) shall be performed in one hour. The declaration is assigned a direct number, and after that, a customs officer will verify the information provided in the declaration for four hours.

Extension of release time to one business day

In some cases, the term of the release is subject to be prolonged.

Situations, when the time to release goods will be extended from 4 hours to one business day following the declaration registration day, are as follows:

1. If any questions on the declaration arise, the customs officer sends the declarant a request to provide documents and information.

If the declarant does not have the required documents on hand, then the release of goods on such declaration will be automatically extended to one business day following the day of registration of the declaration. For example, there may be different terms of delivery stated in the declaration and in an invoice.

2. The declarant submitted to the customs authority a motivating application for amendment (addition) of information provided in the customs declaration.

Usually, a declarant attaches an electronic application or makes corrections in the declaration in its software system and sends it to the officer in electronic form. For example, a declarant could have made a mistake in the license plate number of a truck, trailer, or in number and date of commercial or shipment documents.

3. The declarant failed to fulfill instructions of the customs authority to correct (amend) information provided in the customs declaration.

For example, when the officer requested additional documents (certificates of conformity), and this information should be subsequently added to the DG line 44.

Extension of the time to release to 10 business days

Situations when the time to release goods will be extended to 10 business days following the declaration registration date:

1. In order to perform or complete already initiated customs processing and/or steps ensuring performance of the customs processing.

For example, if a decision is made that customs inspection is needed. The officer who checks the declaration will create a notice of inspection and send it to the customs point where the goods stay at that moment, to determine what trademark is applied on goods.

2. When it is necessary to fulfill the customs authority’s requirement to amend (add) information provided in the customs declaration.

3. In order to provide collateral for performance of the obligation to pay customs duties, taxes, special, antidumping, compensatory duties.

Other situations of extension of the time to release

The time to release goods may be extended if a customs expert examination is needed. If completion of such examination requires more time than 10 business days, the time to release goods will be extended for the term of performance of the customs expert examination.

Conditional release of goods

In some situations a declarant cannot provide the required documents and information at once, in such case goods may be placed under the conditional release. Conditionally released goods maintain the status of foreign goods and will be kept under customs surveillance until they receive the status of EAEU goods. Conditionally released goods may not be transferred to third parties or used in any form.

Suspension of release of goods

If imported goods contain items of intellectual property, their release may be suspended. Such a situation may occur if a declarant has no license agreement with the holder of rights or any other document that proves legitimate use of someone else’s trademark. Suspension of the release of goods in case of violation of rights of the holder of such rights to items of intellectual property may take not less than 20 business days.