Traceability of foreign goods in the EAEU from 1 September 2026: what changes

What launched on 1 September 2026

Since 1 September 2026 the Eurasian Economic Union has permanently operated a traceability mechanism for foreign goods — goods cleared in one member state and then moved to another. The legal basis took more than a year to build: the decision of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of 30.09.2025 and the Agreement on the traceability mechanism of 29.05.2019 underpin common rules approved by the EEC Council in early 2026.

The idea is simple. Previously, once goods cleared in one member state crossed an internal EAEU border, they effectively disappeared from the view of neighbouring countries’ authorities. Now the national traceability systems exchange data, and tax authorities can request information on transactions that preceded the movement across the internal border.

Which problem it addresses

There are no customs borders between EAEU members: goods cleared in Kazakhstan, for example, can move on to Russia without a new declaration. For a long time this created a grey zone in which the country of clearance was chosen for convenient procedures or a lower effective customs value, and the goods then moved on as EAEU goods without further reporting at the internal border.

The new mechanism closes this grey zone. It does not prohibit clearance in any member state — choosing the customs office remains the importer’s lawful right — but makes the whole chain visible to the authorities of every country involved. If data on a consignment are contradictory, or the customs value on import looks understated relative to later sales, this no longer goes unnoticed simply because the goods moved to another member state. Checks that once required a slow formal request between tax authorities are now built into the infrastructure.

For EU and other foreign suppliers

Where goods are ultimately destined for Russia, we screen the shipment as a supply to Russia, whichever EAEU country clears it. We only handle goods that are not subject to EU, UK, Swiss or US sanctions, screen HS codes and parties before accepting any consignment, and do not take part in routing designed to obscure the destination.

Which goods are covered

At the first stage, approved by EEC Council Decision No. 5 of 26.01.2026, the list includes three product groups: household refrigerators and freezers, household and laundry washing machines, and television receivers (including monitors and projectors). The list is deliberately limited to goods that are easy to identify by serial number and have a high import share — convenient for testing the data exchange before expanding the list.

No official dates for extending the list have been published, but the mechanism is common infrastructure for any product group, so the list is expected to grow. Do not confuse the Union list with Russia’s national traceability system, in place since 2021 and considerably broader — it includes, for example, refrigerators, washing machines, monitors and projectors as well as some industrial equipment and baby prams. The Union mechanism adds a cross-border data exchange layer on top of it.

How it works technically

When traceable goods are imported into the EAEU, the importer receives a batch registration number (RNPT in Russian), assigned at customs clearance and carried through all subsequent transactions. It appears in electronic documents — invoices and universal transfer documents — and VAT payers also report transactions with traceable goods in their VAT returns.

Separate reporting (in Russia, form KND 1169010) is filed even by non-VAT payers if there were disposal transactions in the quarter — write-offs, spoilage or transfer other than for resale — by the 25th of the month following the quarter. The number must pass unchanged from document to document along the whole chain: from the customs declaration on first import, to the invoice on sale to a distributor, to the documents of a further sale in another member state. A break in the chain — say, a typo in manual entry — is not fined separately at Union level, but such discrepancies are exactly what triggers a cross-check by the tax authority.

Risks and liability

At launch, sources describe no separate liability for moving traceable goods between member states: it is an infrastructure measure, not a new offence. But it sharply raises the risk under existing rules: if the customs value on first import was understated and traceability shows the goods were later resold at market price in another member state, the authorities have a direct reason to audit and charge additional payments.

Russia’s national traceability system already provides fines for failing to report or distorting the traceability details in documents: from 1,000 to 30,000 roubles for sole traders and from 1,000 to 100,000 roubles for companies. The EAEU mechanism complements it at interstate level rather than replacing it.

What it means in practice

Anyone importing refrigerators, washing machines or televisions into one member state for sale in another should make sure the customs value and accompanying documents will not diverge from what traceability shows at the next step; these data cannot be corrected retrospectively. We handle the transfer of traceability details as part of normal work with imported cargo.

For importers who kept their paperwork accurate before, nothing becomes harder: declared customs value, quantity and configuration simply have to match at every stage. A single visible chain is in fact an advantage — it is easier to justify to a bank for currency control and to counterparties on resale. For you as a supplier, an accurate invoice with serial numbers and correct descriptions is the foundation of that chain.

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