Foreign trade is regulated by the Law “On State Regulation of Foreign Trade Activity” dated November 25, 2004 (apart from the Law, foreign trade is regulated by the Customs Code of the Republic of Belarus, the Law “On Customs Tariff”, decrees of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the Government regulations, acts of the State Customs Committee and other establishments).

 

Any Belarusian company is entitled to perform foreign trade activity since the date of its registration. Alongside with that, it shall register with the regional customs. Foreign trade transactions shall be performed on the basis of the correspondent contracts only.

 

The procedure of regulating foreign trade transactions is simplified since April 1, 2009 in order to liberalize economic environment and investment climate. The former mechanism of transaction passport execution has been substituted by the procedure of transaction registration with the bank upon application principle.

 

Residents performing foreign trade operations are entitled not to register transactions if they make full advance payments (export) or receive goods in full consignment in advance (import), and settle accounts on foreign trade agreements, which stipulate import of products with no receipt thereof on the customs territory of the Republic with a permit of the National Bank.          

 

Residents performing foreign trade operations are also entitled to end liabilities by means of factoring agreement conclusion or by use of non-monetary forms; perform substitution of persons in the obligation with re-registration of a transaction; independently determine the data specified in documents according to which transactions are effected (except for terms of payment, which shall be obligatory included in such documents).

 

Operations for the benefit of a Belarusian resident are to be executed within 90 calendar days since payment date. In case of delay, a fine at the rate of 2% of the amount of payment not received or the amount of goods not delivered, but not exceeding the amount of transaction under the contract is specified. The terms specified can be prolonged by the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Belarus in exceptional cases.

 

Customs duty rates are unified and not subject to alterations depending on natural or legal persons, transiting goods across the customs frontier of the Republic of Belarus, types of transactions and other factors, except for cases envisaged by the legislation.

 

The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus determines the customs duty rates.

 

In relation to the products originating from the countries Belarus does not have most favoured nation terms with, or in case the country of origin is not identified, the rates of import customs duties are doubled, except for the cases Belarus provides tariff benefits (tariff preferences). Calculation, payment and levying of customs duty for a product is carried out based on customs value thereof.    

 

Determination of customs value of products imported on customs territory of the Republic of Belarus is carried out by the following techniques: according to transaction price with imported products, according to transaction price with identical products, according to transaction price with homogeneous products based on cost deduction, cost addition, by reserve method.

 

The main is the method by transaction price with imported products with customs value, according to the method, being transaction price actually paid or payable for imported product as from the date of crossing thereof customs frontier of the Republic of Belarus. In the case the main method cannot be used, applied is each of the above methods successively.  

 

Tariff benefits (tariff preferences) in relation to products, transited across the customs frontier of the Republic of Belarus are set by the President of the Republic of Belarus and the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Customs Tariff”. Individually, tariff preference to the Belarusian State legal and natural persons can be provided by the President of the Republic of Belarus.

 

Custom dues for customs processing are levied at a fixed amount depending on products category, or their amount doesn’t depend on customs value of products. The above regulation is set by the Decree№443 of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated July 13, 2006 “On Customs Dues”.

 

In order to regulate foreign trade they also use non-tariff measures of regulation

 

 

Export of certain kinds of products is carried out under licences issued by the Ministry of Trade approved by the Republic’s bodies of state administration and other state authorities subordinated to the Government of the Republic of Belarus depending on the type and origin of the product. 

 

Export of textiles is carried out under special licences as in the European Union for trade in textiles. The export is conducted to the European Union states and Turkey. The residents of free economic zones export their self-made products with no export licences.  

 

Import quotas are provided for fish and seafood, derivatives thereof, alcoholic products, ethyl alcohol made from edible raw materials, smokables, raw sugar, export quotas – for mineral fertilizers, scrap of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, textiles.

 

Allocation of quotas is, as a rule, implemented by means of tender (auction), with its participants send their proposals to apply one or another allocated quota to the Commission on Tender Arrangement. Following the results of the proposals consideration, preference is given by those participants of external economic activity that are able to implement a quota on most favourable terms for the State.  

 

The winner of quotas auction sale is awarded with a certificate enabling them to be granted a licence for export or import of quoted goods. Validity interval of certificates given to auction winners shall not exceed the quota validity and shall not be prolonged.

 

Object for export control on the territoryof the Republic of Belarus are considered to be the following:  

  

- products, technologies and services stipulated in the international agreements and obligations of the Republic of Belarus referring to international and national security;

- chemical substances (toxins), microorganisms (viruses, bacteria), devices, technologies and services which can be applied for construction and production of chemical and bacteriological (biological) weapons;

- products, technologies and services related to nuclear fuel cycle and production of nuclear materials which can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons and nuclear explosive devices;  

- products, technologies and services which can be used in delivery of weapons of mass destruction;

- weapons of mass destruction and means of their delivery;

- military purpose goods;

- products and technologies for dual use;

- coding means (works, services) including coding equipment, and special purpose technical means designed for secret information acquisition.

 

Foreign trade operations with object of export control (special purpose goods, works, services) are implemented in compliance with a uniform procedure of licensing, export and import, being approved by the President of the Republic of Belarus.

 

The basis of the country’s trade policy is presented by international agreements on trade and economic cooperation concluded by the Republic of Belarus. Such agreements are concluded with more than 80 countries of the world, including all the CIS countries. The major part of intergovernmental agreements with the Republic of Belarus provides for the establishment of free trade regime and most favoured nation treatment.

 

The agreement of Customs Union concluded among Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kirgizstan envisages establishment of unified customs space. The Customs Union is based on recognition of international rules and oriented to the WTO principles. Custom dues, excise taxes, quotas, licences, tariff and quantitative restrictions related to foreign trade are abolished within the frameworks of the Customs Union. Customs check at inner boundaries is removed.

 

The principles of foreign trade policy is relation to the EU member states are formulated in the “Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between the European Communion and member states thereof and the Republic of Belarus,” signed in March 6, 1995 and ratified by the parliaments of eight EU member states.

 

Belarus’s trade policy is formed tacking into account the needs of the country’s economy to be integrated into the world trade system, admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the need in priority development of the Belarusian State export sector.