Russian laws on Chinese wine imports

Chinese liquor goods exported to Russia generally go through the normal customs procedures can be, including the quality of the product certification needs to have. Russia's import restrictions have relaxed a lot. Compared with the strict control before the collapse of the Soviet Union, all enterprises and individuals can now engage in import trade without having to go through special registration procedures, and almost all commodities can be imported freely. Only some goods are subject to import licenses and other controls. Since June 1996, the Russian ruble has been fully convertible in foreign trade transactions, and in January 1998 Russia reclassified its currency units. Until then, Russian exporters were allowed to keep only 50 percent of their earnings in hard currency, and the remainder had to be converted into rubles. For importers, they even had to provide documentation to prove it in order to purchase foreign currency for the import of goods. The Russian customs tariffs are classified by the Harmonized System of Customs Codes (HS), which is based on commodity descriptions and codes, and the basic rates range from 3% to 33% for most imported goods. The Russian Federation Customs also grants special tariff status to a number of developing countries and territories, including China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Goods imported from these countries and regions are subject to 75% of the basic rate of duty, but this does not include such products as clothing made of synthetic fibers, shoes, jewelry, imitation jewelry, assembled electronic components, telephones, integrated electronic chips, watches, clocks, and toys. In addition to import duties, most imported goods are subject to Value Added Tax (VAT). Starting from January 1, 2004, the VAT rate was lowered from 20% to 18%. In order to ensure the quality of imported goods, some imported goods, including consumer goods, must comply with the appropriate Russian product safety standards. Therefore, importers are required to produce a safety standard certificate issued by the Russian Federation's State Committee for Standardization and Weights and Measures (GOST) or one of its authorized bodies. Russia is working on the negotiations for accession to the WTO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and continues to amend the relevant laws in accordance with the rules of these two organizations. I. Legal System of Trade and Investment Russia's laws related to trade and investment management mainly include: 1. Trade Management Policies and Laws Since November 2003, Russia's State Duma (the lower house of the Federal Assembly) and the government have enacted a series of trade-related laws and policies. in November 2003, Russia's State Duma passed the Federal Law on Special Safeguards, Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures against Imports, and in 2003, Russia's State Duma passed the Federal Law on Special Safeguards, Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures against Imports. In November 2003, the State Duma adopted the Federal Law on Special Safeguards, Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures for Imported Goods, which was promulgated in December 2003 as Federal Law No. 165. The purpose of the law is to "protect the economic interests of Russian commodity producers in the event of an increase in imports of commodities, dumping of imported commodities, and imports of subsidized commodities in the Russian Customs Territory," and it sets forth specific procedures for the adoption and implementation of related measures. stability of the Russian ruble and the foreign exchange market. The law allows Russian natural persons to open accounts with banks in the territory of member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or the Financial Measures Task Force on Money Laundering.The Law on the Principles of State Regulation of Foreign Trade Activity, adopted in December 2003, replaced the Law on State Regulation of Foreign Trade Activity. The new law aims to bring the areas of trade in goods, trade in services and trade in intellectual property as close as possible to the principles and rules of the WTO and stipulates that no other state regulation of foreign economic activity is permitted, except for tariff and non-tariff regulation of trade in goods, prohibitions and restrictions on trade in services and trade in intellectual property, as well as economic and administrative measures to promote the development of foreign trade, as provided for in the new law. In March 2004, the Government of the Russian Federation enacted the Adjustment of the Meat Import Regulation, which adjusts the use of meat import quotas, in particular, in the event of an outbreak of a serious animal disease in a certain country, Russian importers holding licenses for importing meat from that country have the right to switch to the importation of meat from a country where no such disease has occurred. Other Russian policies and laws relevant to trade regulation include, inter alia, the Law on Licenses, the Law on Merchandise Marks, Service Marks and Names of Origin of Goods, the Customs Tariff Code, the Law on Certification of Products and Services, the Law on Advertising, the Law on Measures for the Protection of the Interests of the Russian Federation in Foreign Merchandise Trade, the Federal Program for the Development of Exports, the Law on Export Supervision and the Table of Categories of Products for Foreign Trade and Tariffs and Customs Tariffs, The Electronic Digital Signatures Act, the Customs Code, the Leasing Act, and the Regulations on the Means of Supervision of Exports of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies from the Russian Federation. 2. Investment Management Policy and Laws The Russian laws relating to investment include the Foreign Investment Act, the Product Sharing Agreements Act, the Land Code, the Agricultural Land Circulation Act, the Amendments and Additions to Certain Laws and Regulations of the Russian Federation relating to the Development of Housing Mortgage Credits, and the Law of the Russian Federation on the Development of the Housing Mortgage Credit System. Amendments and additions to certain laws and regulations of the Russian Federation on the development of housing mortgage credit, the Law on limited liability companies, the Law on joint-stock companies, the Law on the protection of the rights and interests of legal persons and self-employed persons in the process of implementation of state supervision, the Law on currency regulation and foreign exchange control, the Law on the state registration of legal persons, the Law on the state registration of rights to and transactions in immovable property, etc. 3. Other relevant policies and laws In April 2004, the State Duma of the Russian Federation ratified the Law on the establishment of the Russian Federation as a joint venture with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Agreement on the Establishment of a Unified Economic Space between Russia and Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The State Foreign Economic Policy of the Government of the Russian Federation is aimed at effectively integrating Russia into the international system of division of labor and making this process a long-term economic task in order to carry out structural reforms of the Russian economy and to safeguard the interests of participants in Russia's foreign economic operations. The tariff system of Russia is based on the basic tariff rate, which is applied to imports from countries enjoying the most-favored-nation status at the basic rate, and to imports from other countries at twice the basic rate. Russia implements a variety of tariff preferential measures, for imports from the CIS countries and least developed countries with which Russia has signed free trade agreements, import tariffs are exempted; for imports from countries enjoying the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), tariffs are levied on imports at 75% of the basic rate, and China belongs to one of the countries enjoying the GSP. At present, the average rate of import tariff in Russia is 10.5% to 11%, with the vast majority of imported goods subject to ad valorem tariffs, and a small portion of goods subject to ad valorem tariffs and compound tariffs. In recent years, the types of goods subject to compound tax have been increasing, and in July 1996, export tariffs were completely abolished in Russia, and export tariffs on some products were restored in January 1999, and the products subject to export tariffs include: coal, petroleum, natural gas, refined oil products, some chemical products, non-ferrous metals, timber, raw materials for leather, soybeans, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, and some seafood products, etc. 2. Imports According to Official Letter No. 21-154 issued by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation in May 1997, the sale of imported foodstuffs without Russian descriptions has been prohibited in Russia since May 1997; in addition, according to Official Letter No. N01-15/18803 issued by the State Committee on Tariffs of the Russian Federation in October 1997, the sale of imported foodstuffs without Russian descriptions has been prohibited in Russia since July 1998 In December 1998, the Russian Federation issued a Regulation on the Procedure for the Application of Anti-counterfeiting Marks and Statistical Information Strips to Goods and Products Sold in the Territory of the Russian Federation and the Keeping of Statistics on Their Circulation, which provides that, as of July 1999, it is prohibited to sell in the territory of the Russian Federation goods and products that do not bear the marking and statistical information strips listed in the list annexed to the Regulation, or to sell in the territory of the Russian Federation goods and products that do not bear the marking and statistical information strips listed in the list annexed to the Regulation. From July 1999, it is prohibited to sell in its territory goods and products without anti-counterfeiting marks and statistical information strips as listed in the list annexed to the Regulation. The first list of goods annexed to the Ordinance mainly includes alcoholic beverages, audio-visual products and computer equipment, etc. 3. Export Management Russia mainly adopts export quotas and export licenses to implement export management. (1) Export quotas and export licenses Russia applies export quotas and licenses to the following three categories of products: the first category is products for which international agreements require limited quantities, such as textiles, individual ferrous metal products, silicon carbide, etc.; the second category is certain special products, including wild animals, raw materials for medicines, code-breaking equipment, weapons and dual-use products, nuclear materials and their devices, precious metals and stones, collection materials of minerals and paleontology, semi-precious stones and their products, anesthetics, sedatives, poisons, information about energy, etc.; the third category is products for which there is a large domestic demand in Russia, such as the decision of the Russian government in October 1998 to license the export of unprocessed hides (cowhides, sheepskins and other skins) and oilseeds (sunflower, rapeseed, soybeans) (with no quantitative restrictions) as of November 1998 . Export quotas are allocated mainly through tenders and auctions. Additional quotas may be issued on the basis of export performance if there is a surplus of quotas. Export licenses are issued by the local offices of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. (2) Export Supervision of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies In October 1996, the Russian government issued the Regulation on the Means of Supervision of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies Exported from the Russian Federation, which stipulates that export licenses are required for the export of dual-use goods and technologies, and that export licenses are issued on the basis of the consistency of the exported goods and technologies with the relevant international obligations of the Russian Federation. (3) Registration of Export Contracts Since October 1996, Russia has required the registration of all export and import contracts exceeding 50,000 U.S. dollars. The registration of contracts is carried out by the local offices of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. (4) Unified verification system Since January 1996, Russia has implemented a unified compulsory verification system for the quantity, quality and price of exported goods, stipulating that exported goods, especially important strategic raw materials, have to be inspected by the verification organization at the place of origin to verify whether their quantity and quality are consistent with those stated in the customs declaration and whether their prices are reasonable. Upon completion of the verification, the verification organization issues a "Certificate of Inspection and Delivery" to the exporter, and the customs office will not release the exported goods without this certificate. Since March 1996, this system is no longer mandatory. At present, due to technical reasons, the "unified verification system" can not be fully implemented, in practice, only for petroleum, refined oil products, natural gas, coal, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, timber, mineral fertilizers, and other commodities for verification. (5) processing trade exports Russia will be processing and local purchase of materials processing are included in the scope of processing trade management, processing trade products exported to enjoy certain tax concessions.4 Other related systems in addition to tariffs, import management, export management and other aspects of Russia's other trade management system are: (1) Customs supervision since January 2004, the implementation of Russia's revised "Customs Code," to further simplify the customs supervision procedures, improve the customs supervision procedures, and improve the customs supervision procedures, to further simplify the customs supervision procedures, to improve the customs supervision procedures, to further simplify the customs supervision procedures. Further simplify the customs control procedures, improve the efficiency of customs clearance, the number of relevant quasi-legal documents from 3,000 to 100. (2) Taxation System Russia imposes consumption tax and value-added tax on imported and exported products. Since February 1993, Russia has levied excise tax on some imported products without distinguishing the place of origin of the imported products. At present, the taxed products include five major categories, such as alcohol, cigarettes, gasoline, jewelry and small cars. Russia levies excise tax on some of its exports, including oil and gas, as well as products exported through barter contracts, while providing for exemption from excise tax on products (other than oil and gas) exported to non-CIS countries; and exemption from excise tax on products exported to the three countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are denominated in currencies other than freely convertible currencies. Since February 1993, Russia has levied import link VAT on imports from non-CIS countries. The tax base for import VAT is the sum of the declared customs value of the product, the amount of import duties, and the amount of excise tax, and the tax rate is 20% (10% for some foodstuffs and children's products.) Since January 2004, the rate of import VAT has been reduced to 18%, and the added value of imported goods processed and sold in Russia is also subject to VAT. Russia imposes full VAT on exports to CIS countries at a rate of 20% for general products and 10% for certain foodstuffs and children's products. Exports to non-CIS countries are exempt from VAT. III. Investment Regulatory Regime The Russian Law on Foreign Investments specifies that, except as otherwise provided by the laws of the Russian Federation, the statutory treatment accorded to foreign investors in the territory of the Russian Federation may not be less favorable than that accorded to domestic investors. In addition, article 9, paragraph 2, provides that foreign investors and foreign-funded business organizations participating in priority investment projects enjoy special preferential and legal guarantees that ensure the stability of their investment conditions and that they are not affected by changes in Russian laws and regulations for a certain period of time. Chapter 1, article 3, of the Act on the circulation of agricultural land in the Russian Federation provides that foreign citizens or legal entities owning more than 50 per cent of the authorized capital may own agricultural land on a lease for a period not exceeding 49 years. The Tax Code of the Russian Federation (Part II) contains provisions on the reduction of the profit tax rate to 24%, the reduction of the value added tax rate to 18%, and the conversion of various social contributions (health insurance premiums, unemployment insurance premiums, and pension insurance premiums) into a unified social tax, the rate of which was reduced from the former rate of about 40% of the total wage bill of the enterprise to 35%.