As a Belarusian manufacturer to systematically enter the markets of the EAEU and far abroad

Sanctions pressure has changed the logic of foreign trade in the post-Soviet space. While some markets are closing, others – primarily Russia and its EAEU partners – are opening up a window of opportunities for Belarusian manufacturers that did not exist before: legal equation with local suppliers, price preferences in public procurement, demand for components for industrial cooperation. But the window is not open automatically. To enter it, you need to take certain steps - from assigning a customs code to confirming its origin in a special register.

This is a conversation with the head of the information and marketing sector of the Minsk branch of the BelCCI Vitaly Zhuk, which we supplemented with comments from two Russian experts – the founder of the technological platform for procurement management Evgeny Karyukin and the head of the Federal Agency for Tender and Legal Support Elina Nikolaeva, who look at the same process from the Russian state order.

Step 1. First, with which work begins with any market, not the search for a buyer and not the calculation of the price, but the assignment of the code of the HS FEA (Commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity). This is a ten-digit digital identifier that determines what duty will be charged on the goods when imported, under what technical regulations and certificates it falls and on what bases you can find statistics on it.

Vitaly Zhuk – The HS code is a passport of goods in international trade, – Vitaly Zhuk formulates. Without an exact code, you can’t get data on tariffs, market volumes, or barriers: all analysis tools, from Trade Map to national customs bases, work through this code. For international statistics, the first six digits (harmonized system, HS) are used, the full ten-digit code is used in the EAEU.

Trade Map is the largest international analytical platform and database on world trade developed by the International Trade Center. It contains export and import statistics for more than 220 countries and territories. A free tool for finding sales markets, assessing global demand and analyzing competitors.

Practical advice: the code is searched through the classifier of the Eurasian Economic Commission, clarified through the online services Trade Map and Comtrade (they prompt the code on the description of the goods), and in controversial cases consult with a customs broker or the State Customs Committee. A code error is the most common reason why a manufacturer gets incorrect data about fees and misses time. At the same stage, the technical description of the product, country of origin, volume and already existing certificates are recorded - this is the basis for all further steps. Step 2. The choice of the target market, according to the representative of the BelCCI, is reduced to a matrix of seven criteria: market volume, growth dynamics, customs duty size, non-tariff barriers, logistics, certification requirements and solvency of the population or buyers. Under each criterion, a specific tool is given – from Trade Map and MacMap (an online portal developed by the International Trade Center) to the World Bank and IMF bases. The first market for the Belarusian manufacturer may be the EAEU. The reasons are zero duties within the union, one customs space and mutual recognition of certificates under common technical regulations. “The EAEU Treaty provides for a national regime: a supplier and goods from one country of the union in public procurement of another country should receive conditions not worse than local ones,” explains Yevgeny Karyukin. According to the law, Belarusian goods in the Russian tender cannot be automatically put in worse conditions than Russian ones.

This does not mean that you can get into the tender without effort. The national regime is not an automatic pass: it is necessary to confirm the origin of the goods and fulfill the requirements of a specific purchase. For industrial products, the inclusion of goods in the Eurasian Register of Industrial Goods is often decisive - in Russia this is tied to the measures of the national regime by Government Decree No. 1875. Transitional methods of proof of origin, including the ST-1 certificate, are still in force for some of the headings.

An important reservation concerns commercial procurement, where the customer is not a state, but a private company. There are no single benefits for suppliers from the EAEU: the rules are set by the buyer himself and the competitive advantage of the Belarusian manufacturer is created not by preferences, but by ordinary market things - a clear price taking into account delivery, confirmed delivery terms, service and readiness to work according to the requirements of a particular client. Step 3. Tariff and non-tariff barriers: the two types of barriers are not dangerous. Tariffs are actually duties that can be viewed on MacMap, the WTO tariff database, or through a single Global Trade Helpdesk window that combines data from the WTO, the UN and the International Trade Center. Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are not about money, but about admission as such: technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (mandatory for food, agricultural raw materials and medical devices), quantitative quotas and licenses, anti-dumping measures and packaging and labeling requirements.

NTBs can shut down the market even at zero duty, so they need to be investigated before an entry decision is made, not after. Separately, it is recommended to check the register of restrictive measures of third countries against the EAEU, that is, to find out in advance whether anti-dumping or protective measures have been introduced against a specific commodity item from Belarus.

Step 4. For the EAEU market, the main document is compliance with the unified technical regulations of the Union, which is confirmed by the EAU sign (Eurasian compliance). For Russia, GOST R and TR CU (technical regulations of the Customs Union) are separately mentioned - they are supervised by Rosstandart and Rosaccreditation, which has electronic registers for checking already issued certificates.

For the European Union, the basic reference point is the “CE” sign (Conformité Européenne), which confirms the safety of goods, as well as the REACH regulation governing the circulation of chemicals, and the energy efficiency of products. Requirements for each specific FEA code can be found on the Access2Markets portal of the European Commission, standards - through the European standardization organizations CEN / CENELEC.

For China there is a system of mandatory certification CCC (China Compulsory Certification) - the rules are established by the State Administration for Certification and Accreditation (CNCA), for food products a separate registration through the customs service (GACC / CIFER) is added.

For the countries of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, compliance with the halal standard and the technical regulations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) becomes decisive: in Saudi Arabia it is SASO, in other countries of the region – GSO, in the UAE – the MoIAT compliance system (ECAS) with individual labeling requirements.

For the United States, certification depends on the type of product: food products, medicines and cosmetics pass through the FDA (Sanitary Supervision Administration), for industrial and electrical products, UL standards and the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as NIST technical standards are important.

• ST-2 for Serbia;

• ST-3 for Iran;

REX – for Switzerland and Norway;

EAV for Vietnam;

Form A – under the General System of Preferences (GSP) for a number of developing countries;

• A common form is used for other areas. Step 5. Before entering the market, experts advise to see who already works on it - on three levels. The macro level answers the question of who imports goods into the country and how much (this requires a section of the Bilateral trade in the Trade Map by the product code - it will show the list of supplier countries and their shares). Mesolevel – who leads within the market itself (data from Statista, Kompass, Nielsen). The microlevel is what happens here and now, on marketplaces and in price aggregators.

Separately considered the average import price of competitors is the cost of imported goods divided by its quantity. The data is also taken from the Trade Map. Complementing the picture are B2B trading platforms such as Alibaba, Global Sources and made-in-China.com, which show the real price range and terms of delivery, as well as Kompass and Europages industry bases with contacts of local players. Step 6. How to Physically Enter: All entry channels have their pros and cons.

Direct exports provide the maximum margin, but require high operating costs for independent logistics and promotion.

Working through a distributor or agent is the lowest entry threshold and quickest start due to the partner’s knowledge of the market, but also less control, dependence on it.

Franchising or licensing allows you to scale and receive royalties using local capital, but carries a risk to the reputation of the brand if the partner does not meet the quality standards.

A joint venture or its own branch provides deep implementation and full control, but requires large investments and complex registration.

Marketplace - a quick start and global coverage at the price of fierce competition and commissions.

Public procurement gives access to large volumes, but the transaction cycle here is the longest. For the first entry into a new market – start with a distributor and move to direct export as you develop your own customer base.

A separate conversation: how is the entrance to public procurement in Russia The public procurement channel is a separate system with its own logic. Elina Nikolaeva works with this segment. According to her, the current period creates unusually favorable conditions for producers from the EAEU countries, including Belarus:

Ellina Nikolaeva — Legally, goods from the EAEU are equated by law to Russian (44-FZ, 223-FZ). Price preferences are also given for import substitution. We are talking about two basic laws governing procurement in Russia - 44-FZ (for state and municipal customers) and 223-FZ (for procurement of companies with state participation and natural monopolies).

The practice of industrial cooperation is added to this: Russian manufacturers are increasingly using components produced in the EAEU countries, that is, demand is formed not only directly from the customer, but also through integration into other production chains.

Technically, you can apply through eight main electronic platforms for state order (including Roseltorg, Sberbank-AST, RTS-tender) and through more than 200 commercial platforms, of which B2B-center and Fabricant are the most famous.

At the same time, Elina Nikolaeva identifies three difficulties that are usually underestimated. First, one ST-1 certificate from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia is not enough – additionally, confirmation from the BelCCI is required for inclusion in the Eurasian Register of Industrial Goods, which Yevgeny Karyukin also speaks about: this is not a formality, but a separate procedure. Secondly, the procurement legislation of Russia is constantly changing, and it should be monitored in the working mode, and not studied once before the first tender. Thirdly, participation in procurement means freezing of funds: interim measures require security for both the filing of the application and the execution of the contract, this money is actually withdrawn from the company's turnover for the duration of the procurement cycle.

The result, which is formulated by Elina Nikolaeva:

- Those who legally correctly package and legalize their products in the Eurasian Register today can provide a stable sales channel for the coming years.

The same, but from the point of view of technical preparation, adds Evgeny Karyukin: for cross-border submission of documents, you need to check in advance whether the Belarusian electronic digital signature is compatible with a specific platform, whether additional software or separate registration is required, otherwise you can get stuck at the application stage after the rest of the package of documents is ready. All experts agree on one practical conclusion: the main losses of the manufacturer is not at the stage of reducing the price in negotiations, but earlier - due to a missed formal requirement. Yevgeny Karyukin proposes to prepare for each country and product group the so-called admission card: the product code, the necessary register or certificate of origin, requirements for electronic signature, a list of documents, the format of financial security, delivery conditions and acceptance. Registration at the site is worthwhile in advance, and the ready package of documents is checked in the support service of the site operator before submitting the first application. He advises to start with a narrow set of lots, where the manufacturer can accurately confirm the origin of the goods, terms and service, and not with the mass mailing of applications for all available tenders.

The BelCCI specialist proposes to fill in the table for each target market separately: the code of the HS foreign trade, the volume and dynamics of imports of the country, the duty rate, the main non-tariff barriers, the required certificates, the main competitors, the average import price, the selected entry channel, potential partners and the final expert assessment from one to ten points. The logic is simple: one market, one completed matrix, one informed decision, not an intuitive choice. Export does not begin with a search for a buyer, but with the exact code of the product - without it, neither data on duties nor market statistics are available. The EAEU market for the Belarusian manufacturer is not one of the options, but a starting point: there is a legally enshrined national regime, and not just convenient logistics. Non-tariff barriers are more dangerous than tariffs and should be studied before the entry decision, not after. And for those who consider the channel of public procurement in Russia, the main fork is not in the offer price, but in whether the goods got into the Eurasian register of industrial goods. Even legal equality with Russian suppliers remains a declaration on paper.