New customs duties on imported foreign cars entered into force in Russia

Since September 1st, in accordance with the decision of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission (ECE), there were introduced new customs duties on vehicles imported into the territory of the Customs Union (CU).

As noted in the document signed by the countries participating in the CU, rates are lowered within the framework of Russia's obligations to the WTO and they operate in the territory of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. New customs duties were introduced for the period from September 1st, 2018 to August 31st, 2019 inclusively.

For new passenger cars, imported to Russia, the rates of import duties have been reduced up to 17%, and for used cars (with age 5 - 7 years) - up to 22%. As a whole, the rates of import duties due to WTO obligations have been reduced by 96 items of Commodity Nomenclature for Foreign Economic Activity in average by 3 pp. In 2017, duties for new passenger cars have already been reduced from 23% to 20%. The rates should decrease further - in 2019 – up to 15 pp.

Recall that unofficial compensation for the reduction of import duties is considered to be collected from each vehicle recycling fee. Initially, it was paid only by importers, but from 2014, due to pressure from the WTO member countries, the collection was extended to Russian plants and localized productions in Russia. At the same time, domestic manufacturers began to receive the so-called industrial subsidies, de facto compensating for the recycling fee.