Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry is working closely with China's Ministry of Commerce to solve the "Wenzhou Shoes incident," which involves the confiscation of large numbers of Wenzhou-made shoes in Russia, a Russian diplomat said Tuesday.

Maxim Golikov, acting Russian trade representative in China, said as the issue is rather complicated, and unlikely to be solved in a short period. "I hope the incident won't influence further development of trade between Russia and China."

Russian police raided a warehouse near Moscow on March 12 in an anti-smuggling action and confiscated more than 80 million yuan (approximately 9.7 million US dollars) worth of shoes from Chinese footwear exporters in Wenzhou. The police detained owners of the goods the following day.

Golikov said the goods were confiscated because they entered Russia through the illegal "gray customs clearance."

"Gray customs clearance" is a regular practice among Chinese companies who turn to intermediaries to transport bulk packages of commodities in planes and container trucks. The practice is recognized by Russia's Customs Commission. However, consignors of goods flowing to Russia through such "gray clearance" are left with no official customs declaration documents.

With the rapid development of trade, China and Russia have separately set up their own working teams to rectify "gray customs clearance."

Meanwhile, China and Russia have agreed that, until the issue of "gray customs clearance" is resolved, it is not acceptable for either side to take unilateral action such as seizing goods.

Golikov said some Russian customs clearance agents are using improper means to handle the importing of goods. The Russian government has taken actions against "gray customs clearance" and beefed up cooperation with China in this field.

Natalia Narochnitskaya, vice chairman of the international affairs committee of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said during her ongoing visit here that Russia has no special policies and arrangement for China, and the incident had nothing to do with politics.