On June 22, 2015, in Geneva, Kazakhstan completed negotiations on joining the World Trade Organization. On October 12, 2015, by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Protocol on our country's accession to the WTO was ratified and in December 2015 Kazakhstan became a full member of this organization.
At the same time, the main conditions for Kazakhstan's accession to the WTO are, among other things, tariff obligations for a number of commodity items - the List of exemptions, the import rate of which in the WTO conditions is lower than the current customs duties within the framework of the Unified Customs Tariff of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter - ETT EAEU).
To date, the List of exemptions consists of 3310 commodity items (68 commodity groups of all 97 commodity groups within the framework of the TN VED, including: agricultural products, light industry, vehicles, etc.), to which the rates of import customs duties are lower, than ETT EAEU.
Taking into account the fears of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter referred to as the EAEU) about the possible re-export of Kazakhstani goods imported at low customs duties under the WTO to the EAEU member states, on October 16, 2015, the Heads of the EAEU states signed a number of documents on the implementation of the tariff obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of accession to the WTO (Protocol).
In accordance with the signed documents, the Republic of Kazakhstan has undertaken to prevent the export of goods included in the List of Exemptions on the territory of other EAEU countries only if they are imported into the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the use of reduced rates of customs duties.
The import of goods included in the List of exemptions into the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan must be carried out either at the rates of the WTO, but without the right to export to the territory of the EAEU member states, or at the rates of the CCT of the EAEU with the aim of their further sale both on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan and abroad.
In this regard, taxpayers must comply with the following requirements:
1) Goods from the List imported into the Republic of Kazakhstan at WTO rates are prohibited from export from the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the EAEU countries;
2) Goods from the List imported into the Republic of Kazakhstan at the rates of the ETT of the EAEU, when exported to the customs territory of the EAEU, must be accompanied by copies of the electronic invoice (hereinafter referred to as the ESF) and the declaration for goods certified by the state revenue authorities;
3) Goods from the List, produced in the Republic of Kazakhstan, when exported to the territory of the EAEU member states, if the goods of this group are included in the List of exemptions, must be accompanied by a certified copy of the ESF and the original certificate of origin of the goods in the form ST-1;
4) Goods from the list imported into the Republic of Kazakhstan from the territory of the EAEU member states, when exported to the territory of the EAEU countries, must be accompanied by certified copies of the ESF and an application for the import of goods and payment of indirect taxes.
In order to control the goods included in the List of exemptions, Kazakhstan uses the information system "Electronic invoices", in which shipping documents are generated containing the following information:
At the same time, when goods imported at WTO rates are exported from the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, liability measures are provided in accordance with the legislation of the EAEU member states. Due to the fact that the movement of goods, including those imported at reduced rates, is carried out by carriers, the responsibility for the actions of unscrupulous entrepreneurs will fall directly on them.
In this regard, in accordance with the provisions of the Protocol, the carrier has the right to refuse the carriage of goods that do not have the above accompanying documents, which are necessary for presentation when exporting from the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In addition, filling out an E-invoice for the export of goods that are on the List of exemptions is possible only with an electronic digital signature (hereinafter referred to as EDS). In this regard, Entrepreneurs engaged in trading activities need to obtain an EDS.