Maintaining threshold of duty-free online trade in EAEU at 200 euros advisable for at least one year - Russian Industry and Trade Ministry
MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - The decision on the part of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) to maintain the current threshold for duty-free import of goods by individuals through online trade at 200 euros for an indefinite period was a compromise for all participants in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), State Secretary and Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov said.
Chekushov said that the decision on the threshold for duty-free purchase of goods through marketplaces from abroad is linked to completing procedures for the amendments to the Treaty on the EAEU Customs Code entering into force that specify e-commerce as a separate type of activity.
As reported, the EEC Council at the end of February approved maintaining the current threshold for duty-free e-commerce in the EAEU at 200 euros, without specifying the period for which the threshold was set despite the countries having previously discussed a gradual reduction in the threshold. The draft EEC decision indicated the stages as being up to 100 euros from January 1 to December 31, 2026, and up to 50 euros from January 1 to December 31, 2027.
"This is a balanced decision [to maintain the threshold], which will at least allow us not to administer the procedure for importing very small goods at a price and not to create a situation where the process of collecting customs duties or paying them, so to speak, will affect the fact that the cost of the procedures would be more expensive than the cost of the goods themselves. Therefore, perhaps, the presence of a threshold is now economically justified, and 200 euros has already shown its effect. We supported this position, and we have not made alternative proposals thus far," Chekushov said.
The deputy minister suggested waiting for the agreement on e-commerce, which the EAEU member countries are currently considering, to enter into force. "I think that the new rules need to be in effect for at least a year, while the chapter [of the EAEU Customs Code agreement on e-commerce] has not yet entered into force," he said in response to the prospects for reducing the threshold.
An Interfax source familiar with the progress of the discussions in the EEC on the duty-free threshold said that the parties could return to revising the current threshold in the first half of 2026, by which time the EAEU countries are expected to formulate their proposals for a gradual reduction in the threshold to zero by 2029.
