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Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers proposes reducing the threshold of duty-free allowances in Ukraine as of January 1, 2017 for individuals who travel by air and sea from EUR 1,000 to EUR 430 per person, and by other means of transportation from EUR 500 to EUR 300.
Respective changes are included in government-prepared bill No. 3444 on amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine regarding the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
The bill proposes cancelling the provisions under which energy-saving equipment and equipment for renewable energy systems, and materials, equipment and components used for their manufacture should be exempt from duties.
The bill also allows more alcohol to be brought into Ukraine free of duty: limitations on beer may be raised from 5 to 16 liters and on sparkling wine from 2 to 4 liters.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine and the EU signed the political provisions of the Association Agreement on March 21, 2014, and the economic provisions were signed in late June 2014, after Ukraine held the presidential election, having elected Petro Poroshenko as President of Ukraine.
It was originally planned that a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU would become effective from October 2014. However, after consultations of representatives of the European Commission, Ukraine and Russia in Brussels, the parties agreed in September 2014 to postpone the economic provisions of the Agreement until December 31, 2015. The EU introduced unilateral preferences on exports of Ukrainian goods. At the same time European goods in Ukraine remained subject to duties. The Russian side threatens a full trade embargo against Ukraine if the Agreement comes into force.