The import of goods through the ports of the Far East will be simplified

The government made it easier for importers to transit goods through the Far Eastern ports, followed by the transportation of goods, first by road and then by rail. Companies transporting goods in this way will be exempted from the need to provide security for the payment of customs taxes and duties. This is done to speed up procedures and unload seaports in the Far East. Experts consider the relaxation significant, noting that it will reduce the financial costs of importers, but warn that the process of unloading ports is unlikely to be fast.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved a government decree on simplifying customs procedures when importing goods through Far Eastern ports. As the prime minister explained at a meeting with his deputies, “due to sanctions, logistics chains have changed – now deliveries of goods through the Far Eastern sea checkpoints are growing, containers are being unloaded from ships at terminals and taken out by trucks for subsequent transportation by rail.” Registration of transit when using several modes of transport, according to him, “is a rather laborious and complex process.”

To simplify procedures, as follows from the document, until the end of 2026, importers in such cases will be exempted from the obligation to provide security for the payment of customs taxes and duties. To do this, goods must be imported through government-designated Far Eastern sea checkpoints – there are 11 of them (Vanino, Vladivostok, Vostochny, De-Kastri, Zarubino, Nakhodka, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Olga, Okhotsk, Posyet and Sovetskaya Gavan). A list of stations has also been defined where containers should be reloaded from cars to railway platforms: Artem-Primorsky 1, Nakhodka, Nakhodka-Vostochnaya, Sovetskaya Gavan-Sortirovochnaya, Uglovaya, Ugolnaya and Ussuriysk.

According to Mikhail Mishustin, this will save importers money and time and unload ports in the Far East. In 2021-2022, we recall, the Far Eastern ports faced an overload – this year the situation is generally more stable. As previously reported by the Federal Customs Service, the increase in container traffic in the region this year was estimated at 34% – in total, the Far Eastern ports account for almost 60% of cargo turnover (see Kommersant of June 15).

Beglyar Novruzov, director of the Center for the Economics of Infrastructure Industries of the Center for Strategic Research, believes that exempting importers from ensuring the payment of customs duties and taxes is a “strong relief”. Previously, bank guarantees, guarantees or cash collateral were required – now there will be no need to interact with banks on such issues, to find guarantors or reserve money from the total operating funds. As Gleb Kinder, vice-president of Opora Rossii, notes, this will reduce the financial costs of participants in foreign economic activity. According to him, the need for this measure is connected, among other things, with the need to level out bursts of import flows of containerized cargo that pass through the Far Eastern ports.

However, says Beglyar Novruzov, there is a high probability that the flow of imported cargo will remain “in the Vladivostok-Vostochny-Nakhodka triangle.” At a minimum, he continues, unloading is unlikely to happen instantly. “All the main “import” ports are located as close as possible to the source countries of imports, and the same Vanino, De-Kastri, Sovetskaya Gavan and others are located to the north – this distance also needs to be sailed, which will increase the cost of transportation, then transshipment and storage, which depends on the ability to quickly supply wagons for imported goods, as well as the cost issue of transportation by rail,” says the expert. If, he said, all these costs are comparable to the costs of shipping through the main ports, then the impact of changes “in a certain period” will undoubtedly be.

Evgenia Kryuchkova