The Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with QazTrade JSC, continues to work to increase the transparency of foreign trade regulation and the availability of information for businesses on non-tariff regulatory measures (prohibitions, restrictions, technical requirements, labeling, etc.) in effect in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
As part of this work, Kazakhstan is posting information on non-tariff regulatory measures in the UNCTAD TRAINS Portal, an international database. The platform is used by traders, analysts, and investors worldwide as a source of up-to-date information on the rules and requirements in effect in international trade.
For reference: The TRAINS Portal is a centralized international platform containing information on sanitary, phytosanitary, technical, quantitative, restrictive, prohibitive, and other measures applied in international trade.
To date, the system has published data on 549 non-tariff regulation measures in effect in the Republic of Kazakhstan, across 96 regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Eurasian Economic Union (https://trainsonline.unctad.org/home).
The published non-tariff regulation measures cover a wide range of requirements applicable to foreign trade. Specifically, these include import and export prohibitions and restrictions, product certification and conformity assessment requirements, mandatory labeling rules, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, licensing of certain types of goods, and other technical and administrative regulations.
For example, a significant portion of the entered data pertains to product conformity assessment requirements, including mandatory certification and declaration, testing, and confirmation of compliance with technical regulations. The database contains approximately 93 measures related to product conformity assessment and certification, approximately 29 measures requiring testing and inspection, and approximately 49 technical requirements for products. The document also includes approximately 40 measures establishing labeling and consumer information requirements, approximately 15 sanitary requirements for food products and goods of animal and plant origin, as well as approximately 12 permitting procedures applied to the import and export of certain categories of goods.
All measures are included in accordance with the UNCTAD international methodology in English. Each measure is described, coded according to the international classification, validity periods, and a list of goods to which the regulation applies.
Particular attention is paid to the currency of the data. A thorough verification process is conducted before publication. This work is ongoing, taking into account changes in the legislation of Kazakhstan and the EAEU.
The publication of information in the international system has made Kazakhstan's trade measures more transparent, understandable, and predictable for foreign trade participants. For domestic exporters, this simplifies access to regulatory information and reduces the time spent searching for requirements when entering foreign markets.
Thus, the systematization and publication of data on non-tariff measures in the international TRAINS database increases the transparency and predictability of Kazakhstan's regulatory environment. This allows foreign trade participants and investors to understand current requirements in advance, reduces uncertainty when entering the market, simplifies trade planning, and reduces the costs of obtaining regulatory information.
As a result, trust in Kazakhstan's trade policy increases and its investment attractiveness at the international level is enhanced.
Work to further populate and update the data will continue on a systematic basis.
We also inform you that this platform also reflects information on measures taken by foreign countries when importing goods: https://trainsonline.unctad.org/home.
