The need to adopt a new Code arose from the problem of the development of Russian economy and foreign trade.

In the late 1980s, with the beginning of the transition to a market economy, the Customs Code became outdated faster than the economic transformations that took place and less and less met the requirements of the new era.

Since the introduction of individual amendments to the current code no longer covered the required transformations, in 1991 the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved a new Customs Code of the USSR, containing norms oriented towards the development of a market economy.

The first version of the Customs Code of Russia was submitted for signature to President Boris Yeltsin in May 1993.

The Customs Code of the Russian Federation was approved by the Supreme Soviet and signed by the President on June 18, 1993.

By the way, the Customs Code of 1993 was one of the first major legislative acts adopted in modern Russia.

However, despite the fact that the new Customs Code was more in line with the requirements of an open foreign economic market, its provisions contributed to the creation of administrative barriers when moving goods across the border.

For example, in 1998, the Constitutional Court of Russia recognized Article 266 of the Code as unconstitutional and repealed it, which allowed customs authorities to confiscate the property of those persons who failed to complete customs clearance procedures within the established timeframes,[4] and in 2001, the second part of Article 247 was repealed for the same reason.