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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT RUSSIAN / CIS CERTIFICATION & LICENSING
Daily SGS receives hundreds of questions on the Russian / CIS certification & licensing. The most frequently asked questions are briefed below:
 How long does it take to get certified?
How long does it take to prolong the certificate?
Which product classification is used to identify applicable standards?
Which international certificates are accepted in Russia?
How much would it cost to get certified?
How to make the certification cost-effective?
Does it matter whether exporter or importer handles product certification?
Whom to address for Russian certification?
How long does it take to get certified?
The Russian government created a complex, time consuming but strictly operating system of verifying product quality and safety upon conformity to the Russian requirements. The certification process can take from a few hours up to several months. Its duration depends on the following factors:
- The type of certificate you opt for (e.g. verification process for a 3-year validity Certificate of Conformity for serial production normally takes longer than a certificate valid for just one shipment);
- The need to make tests, number and complexity of the tests;
- Number of certificates you have to obtain prior to the targeted permissive document (e.g. to obtain RTN (ex GGTN) Permit to Use you might need to provisionally undergo fire safety, hygienic, explosion-proof, metrological and GOST R conformity certification);
- Your ability to quickly collect the internal documents needed for verification;
- Time spent upon translation of required documents into Russian language;
- Your previous experience with Russian certification (i.e. obtaining the permissive document for the very first time commonly lasts longer than the subsequent similar applications).
As a result, you are able to speed up the process by means of manipulating the above-mentioned factors.
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How long does it take to prolong the certificate?
Validity period of a Russian certificate varies from 1 shipment up to a few years. Once a Russian certificate expired, it must be renewed, which means that the whole certification process must be undergone once again and there is no literal prolongation of the certificate. It is wrong to believe that the certificate can be prolonged by just changing the dates and printing out the document. Therefore, if you need a smooth export process without any breaks in shipments schedule, you should apply for a new certification before the previous certificate expires, well in advance.
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Which product classification is used to identify applicable standards?
To specify the applicable Russian safety requirements you have to identify the product type in accordance with the Russian coding system. Therefore, it is very important to spend enough time for certification scope definition.
The Russian Product Classification (OKP) has been operating since Soviet times and, so far, has not been harmonised with any international system. Number of items at the most detailed level of OKP (on the 6th digit) exceeds 36’800 positions. Since 1991, it has co-existed with the Foreign Trade Classification (TNVED), which lays the basis for the Russian Customs Tariff. The first six digits of TNVED codes coincide with HS-codes (Harmonized Commodity Description And Coding System).
It is the OKP system that should be used for identification of the standards to apply in the Russian Federation. However, all export-import operations are subject to TNVED coding, which is used during customs clearance of imported goods. Consequently, discrepancy between OKP and TNVED codes may cause ambiguous situations. For example, according to TNVED steel fittings for pipelines are subject to mandatory certification (code № 7307 00 000 0), whereas according to OKP they can be certified only on voluntary basis (code № 14 6200). In such disputable cases notified authorities are to be advised.
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Which international certificates are accepted in Russia?
Many Russian acting standards are different and not harmonised with European, other international or national standards. The reason for that partly lies in the Russian specific climate conditions, partly in the historical background (many of the Russian standards have not been re-viewed since Soviet times). Quite often, verification methods considerably differ from those applied in the Western Europe or the US. To cite some examples: in Russia, testing of toys includes verification of formaldehyde and phenol content, although not checked in the EU; transformers have to be tested at -40°C temperature, i.e. in twice as cold conditions as in Europe; steel pipes might be subject to 100% testing as opposed to 10-20% sampling in Europe.
Therefore, even if your products are well-know throughout the world and recognized as safe in the EU or any other country, still you have to prove that they comply with Russian requirements in accordance with Russian methodology.
However, availability of an international certificate might facilitate the procedure of obtaining the appropriate Russian approvals. For example, in case your equipment is certified according to ATEX, UL, FM or CSA the verification process to obtain Russian explosion-proof certificate can be limited to document review without any additional laboratory testing.
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How much would it cost to get certified?
There is no standard price-list for Russian certification services, since their cost is very much dependable on such factors as complexity of your product, complexity of the manufacturing process and the type of permissive document you opt for.
Your expenses on Russian certification will usually consist of the following elements:
- Cost of samples selected for destructive tests;
- Expenses on the packing, storage, freight handling and transportation of samples to the testing laboratory;
- Cost of product tests in accredited laboratory;
- Audit expenses, including travel costs;
- Translation services;
- Labour expenses of the certification body (man-days * daily rate) over processing of your inquiry, verification of documents, issuance of certificate;
- Overhead expenses.
You may be offered discounts in case you wish to obtain a relatively large number of certificates or if you are applying for the same service repeatedly. Such cost reduction is due to decreasing overheads, number of required samples and number of tests.
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How to make the certification cost-effective?
To make certification cost-effective, we recommend correlating the type of certificate with anticipated volume of exports and range of exported goods. Thus, if you are planning to regularly ship your goods to Russia, and their range is quite wide, it might be wiser to opt for a serial certificate valid for a few years. Although it will require higher single payment versus shipment certification, in the long-term such a scheme can save both your time and money. In fact, whole product line will have to be sampled and tested in the framework of a shipment certification, whereas only a limited number of samples will be tested for serial certification since production audit will certify conformity of the rest.
Be prepared that the certification cost might appear not proportional versus cost of the product to be certified. Therefore, if your company intends to take part in a tender for a project in Russia our advice is to plan ahead and ask preliminary quotation for certification from a professional body so as to include the cost to your bidding. Otherwise, there is the risk that once the project won with the bid not taking into account real certification cost, your anticipated profit will not be sufficient to cover actual expenses. In some cases, your certification body might suggest slight modifications of the initial design for a machine or industrial unit in order to lower your certification expenses.
You might be offered with cheap solutions of getting your certificate. However, as Russian saying goes: «Cheap cheese is only available in a mouse trap». Make sure that the offered solution would not affect your business in the future because of using a fake or invalid certification.
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Does it matter whether exporter or importer handles product certification?
When negotiating sales contracts with Russian partners, exporters need to raise issues related to certification expenses, namely which party bears the costs, procedures and responsibilities. In some cases, exporter and importer alike are able to carry out certification and obtain proper permissive documents.
Exporters should bear in mind that in case the certificate is issued under the name of their importer, the latter will become their exclusive distributor in the Russian market during the whole validity term of the certificate. Therefore, those exporters who wish to keep control over their Russian marketing strategy and preserve their independence from any local partner should take care of their products’ certification themselves.
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Whom to address for Russian certification?
Any approving document is to be issued by a notified body. There are around 800 certification bodies based in Russia and a few international companies that hold proper accreditation and offer certification services outside of Russia, and SGS is one of those few. Often, certification bodies are focused on a specific type of approvals or on a concrete industry (e.g. textile or telecom), and only the largest ones provide integrated services assisting in getting a range of approvals in one place.
While selecting the certification body, we recommend paying attention to its competence. Request for their reference list, consider whether they are experienced in the kinds of certificates you need and able to guide you in the Russian regulatory environment – often inconsistent and uncertain. Unprofessional service, cheap as it may be, might cause you a headache in the future such as arrest of the shipment at the customs border or costly shifts in delivery schedule.
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