Russia and its neighbours form an economic union where regulations governing cosmetics are enforced on a harmonized basis. The registration procedures needed before products are placed on the market are also identical. Elsa Dietrich, International Relations Manager at Cosmetics Europe, detailed them at the Cosmetic World Tour organized by the FEBEA (French Federation of Beauty Companies) on September 19-20, 2016.
‘We often think about exporting to Russia, but talking about Russia means talking about the EurAsian Economic Community, which also comprises Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kurdistan,’
Elsa Dietrich started.
‘It is a customs union that will probably quickly develop: Tadzhikistan has already applied to join it, and Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan might also do it.’
The EurAsian Economic Community gathers 182.1 million inhabitants, including 146.5 million living in Russia. The GDP amounts to 2,418 billion dollars for the whole area. This community mainly involves the coordination of taxes and customs policies, with the free circulation of goods, services, capitals, and manpower, but also the unification of regulations in all its Member States.
Cosmetics regulations
Within this Community, cosmetics are regulated by the Technical Regulation of the Customs Union for the Safety of Perfumery and Cosmetics (or TR CU 009/2011), adopted on September 23, 2011, and enforced on July 1, 2012. Strongly inspired from the European Directive implemented at that time, this technical regulation is headed up by Belarus, the ‘developer’ that supervises the drafting of the text and its modifications.
Key definitions
• Cosmetic product : the definition is exactly the same as in Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009, which means that, for …
