Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 18.11.2003

Federal Law No. 153-FZ of November 11, 2003 on the Amendment to Article 5 of the Law of the Russian Federation on the State Secret

Taking into account the liberalisation of the market of precious metals and precious stones, participation of the Russian Federation in the Kimberley process and the negotiation position on the entry in WTO, the list of information comprising the state secret will now exclude information on extraction, transfer and consumption of precious metals and precious stones.
The state secret will include information on the reserves of platinum, metals of the platinum group, natural diamonds in the State Fund of Precious Metals and Precious Stones of the Russian Federation, Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as well as on the volumes of reserves in deposits, extraction, production and consumption of strategic types of mineral resources of the Russian Federation (according to the list defined by the Government of the Russian Federation).
The Federal Law is entered into force three months after the day of its official publication.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 689 of November 15, 2003 on the Endorsement of the Rates of Export Customs Duties for Raw Oil and Oil Products from Bituminous Materials and Commodities of Oil Exported from the Territory of the Russian Federation Outside the Member-States of Customs Union Agreements

The rate of the export customs duty for raw oil and oil products from bituminous materials (code according the Foreign Trade Commodity Nomenclature of the Russian Federation 2709 00) is reduced from USD 33.8 to USD 31.2 per 1,000 kg. The rates of export customs duties for commodities of oil (benzene, toluene, xylene, lubricants, spent oil products, propane, butane, ethylene, propylene, butylene, butadiene, other liquefied gases, xylenes and other) are reduced from USD 30.4 to USD 28.1 per 1,000 kg.
The Decision is entered into force from December 1, 2003.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 686 of November 13, 2003 on the Amendments to the Customs Tariff of the Russian Federation Pertaining to Individual Types of Sugar-Containing Commodities

The rate of the import customs duty for some types of sugar-containing commodities is fixed in the amount of EUR 0.23 per 1 kg (earlier, 5% of the customs cost).
The Decision is entered into force one month after the day of its official publication for 9 months.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 685 of November 13, 2003 on the Processing Sufficiency Criteria of Processing of Raw Sugar and White Sugar Imported to the Customs Territory of the Russian Federation

In the determination of the country of origin of imported products of processing of raw sugar and white sugar, not meeting the processing sufficiency criteria appeared to be operations of mixing, including dilution in water, addition of flavouring agents, cocoa, other substances (where applicable) if the commodities of such processing are classified in Headings 1702, 1704, 1806 and 2106 of the Foreign Trade Commodity Nomenclature of the Russian Federation.