Cabinet extends increased duties on Russian goods for year

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has extended until the end of 2021, its resolution dated December 30, 2015, which introduced increased import duties on goods from Russia.

The relevant resolution was adopted at a government meeting, as reported by an UNIAN correspondent on November 25.

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"The draft [resolution] proposes that the application of preferential import duty rates set by the Customs Tariff of Ukraine and raised to the level of the World Trade Organization's most-favored-nation treatment rates for goods originating from Russia be extended until December 31, 2021," the explanatory note said.

Background

• On December 16, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending the agreement on a free trade area with Ukraine. On December 25, Russia's Federation Council, which is the upper house of the Russian parliament, unanimously endorsed a bill on the suspension by the Russian Federation of the Treaty on the free trade area with Ukraine.
• In December 2015, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers approved a number of trade countermeasures against Russia, as well as drew up a list of Russian goods banned from imports into Ukraine.