The European Union has prohibited imports of certain goods from Russia and Belarus, but some goods have been given a transition period. You can check the transition periods for goods imported from Russia in the Annexes to Council Regulation (EU) 2022/576 and transition periods for goods from Belarus in the Annexes to Council Regulation (EU) 2022/355. For example, products mentioned in Annex XXI to Regulation 2022/576 can be imported until 10 July 2022 if a contract between businesses has been concluded before 9 April 2022 regarding the goods (Article 1(13) Regulation (EU) 2022/576).
Prove with a contract or invoice when the trade took place
When you submit a customs declaration for the goods, attach the contract and the invoice to the customs declaration to prove that the trade took place before the sanctions took effect. If the import goods subject to sanctions are part of a chain of multiple commercial contracts, attach to the customs declaration the contract that was made with the country under sanctions and the first EU country in the chain of contracts (e.g. between a Russian and a Finnish company).
Finnish Customs will not have to request separately to see the contract when you attach it to the customs declaration and provide the contract number. If you enter for example the commercial contract and invoice as attachment, provide the details with the document codes ‘3315 – Commercial contract’ and ‘N380 – Commercial invoice’ and provide as description the numbers of the documents.
If the contract is for example only in Russian, Customs may request that you provide an authorised translation in addition to the copy of the original contract.
Customs will examine the contract before releasing the goods for the procedure.
Please note that the examination of the contract details will slow down the customs clearance process, especially in cases where the contract has not been attached to the customs declaration.
Additional information:
Council Regulation (EU) 2022/576
Council Regulation (EU 2022/355
Russian attack on Ukraine – export sanctions and their effects on businesses and private individuals
Customer notice, 15 October 2021: Message exchange customers: get your import declarations processed more quickly by sending attachments in advance via message exchange
Customer notice in Finnish, 23 March 2022: Valko-Venäjältä ja Venäjältä peräisin olevan teräksen tuontikiellot – vaikutukset kolmasien maiden terästuotteiden suojatoimenpiteisiin
yritysneuvonta@tulli.fi
