UK Belarus sanctions: identify restricted goods by reference to commodity codes
The UK government’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (‘OFSI’) has published new guidance to stay up to date with recent amendments to sanctions with relation to Belarus.
Inter alia, it notes that restrictions on some goods, which are not otherwise controlled, including ‘tobacco industry goods, potash, mineral products, iron and steel products, oil refining goods and luxury goods,’ are identified ‘by reference to commodity codes in the Goods Classification Table,’ noting, ‘The UK Tariff sets out a system for the classification of goods to enable importers to ascertain the applicable rate of import duty for their goods. It is this system of classification that is used in the Regulations in order to determine whether goods are within scope of the prohibitions.’
It says: ‘This means that where commodity codes are used in the Regulations, the relevant goods are those which would be classified under the relevant commodity code (applying the rules in the UK Tariff) if the goods were being imported to the UK.
‘Some of the listings of commodity codes in the Regulations have an “ex” before the code. Where this “ex” appears before a commodity code this means that the prohibitions in the Regulations do not apply to all of the items under that commodity code. The prohibitions will only apply to those items that (1) would be classified under the commodity code and (2) that match the description given next to the relevant “ex” code entry in the Regulations.’
