2024-08-07 08:52:15
New conditions for sales in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union will be set before large e-commerce operators. Online stores will be responsible for the quality of the goods they sell in EAEU countries, and the volumes of duty-free online shopping will most likely decrease significantly, Vahagn Ghazaryan, Director of the Customs Tariff and Non-Tariff Regulation Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, said in a conversation with “Aputnik Armenia”.
According to him, the new regulatory mechanisms are necessary so that e-commerce can be comparable in terms of volumes to the regular one (at least in terms of some products), but at the same time it is in more profitable conditions. Here the department is considering two directions.
The first is non-tariff measures, that is, quality control. Now it is completely absent for goods purchased by private individuals from electronic platforms, and if it turns out that the product is of poor quality or dangerous, no one will be responsible for it.
“Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba and other online stores in many countries and regions are responsible for the quality of the products they sell. They do not have such an agreement with the Eurasian Union, so we can make demands. However, this issue is already being discussed, and they are ready for new rules because they do not want to lose the Eurasian market. In other words, by offering products on their platforms, online stores must state that it meets the EAEU quality standards,” Ghazaryan explained.
He added that in the first half of 2022, the department wants to draw up norms for the technical regulation of online trade and start the implementation of quality control on a trial basis.
The department will hold discussions with the tax authorities of EAEU countries to resolve the issue of VAT during online trade between the republics. If the product is sold to an individual, the tax service does not see it in any way, because it does not receive any supporting documents in case of such a sale. That is why VAT is charged on the product, even though it is exported.
Vahagn Ghazaryan said that these issues will also be settled in the pilot system.
“Several operators from each country will be selected to test this system,” he said.
The department is also negotiating the threshold for the duty-free import of goods from third countries within the framework of online trade. Ghazaryan reminded that the online customs duty import threshold in the European Union is already zero, that is, all purchases are taxed with duties to protect the domestic market.
“Similar discussions are going on in our department as well. The cancellation of the duty-free regime has not been definitely discussed, but at least the significant reduction of the threshold of the duty-free regime is being discussed,” he added.
Now, according to the EAEU Customs Code, in terms of e-commerce, goods worth up to 200 euros can be imported duty-free.