As we know, the Eurasec (now the Eurasian Economic Union) regulations have replaced most of the national GOST certificates with EAC certification, but they have not completely withdrawn them. At present, GOST certificates are still issued, but only a small percentage of them are the compulsory type. In most cases, it’s the exporter who voluntarily decides to certify their product on the basis of Russian or Belarusian national legislation, or that of any other country in the EU.
With the voluntary GOST R Certificate, it’s the applicant who states which standards and requirements they want to base the certification of their products on. On the other hand, in the mandatory GOST R Certificate, it is the law itself that establishes the standards and reference requirements.
An exporter may request this document for one of two reasons. On the one hand, it may be part of a business strategy, because having a GOST R certificate gives you access to large Russian commercial chains that usually request quality tests before purchasing a product. Something similar occurs with public tenders and dealings with the Russian public administration.
On the other hand, having a voluntary GOST R certificate allows you to enjoy advantages at a bureaucratic or administrative level.
For example, it shortens the time needed to obtain an EAC Declaration of Conformity. The Declaration is registered on the basis of the Certificate and there is no need to repeat the laboratory tests. In this case, it is essential to have the advice of an expert who can identify the standards so that both documents are obtained in the shortest time possible.
Another advantage is that a voluntary GOST R Certificate can act as a Commercial Exemption Letter. Obviously, it can never act as a Customs Exemption Letter, as, if it did, then customs clearance would depend on the subjective criteria of the producer or exporter.
Types of voluntary GOST R certificates
The same ones as the mandatory Gost R:
- Voluntary Single Delivery GOST R Certificate, also called “single contract”
- Voluntary 1-year GOST R Certificate
- Voluntary 3-year GOST R Certificate
Regarding the rules governing the issuance of the mandatory GOST R Certificate, we would like to point out just one difference here: the company applying for a voluntary GOST R Certificate is not subject to the Russian authorities’ inspection regime.
