Government of Ukraine introduces tit-for-tat measures in response to Russian sanctions

The relevant decision was made at the Cabinet’s meeting on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The draft government decree on introducing changes to the list of goods that originate from the territory of the Russian Federation has been analyzed in structure and market segments. The draft decree was elaborated in response to discriminatory or unfriendly actions of the aggressor state based on appeals from enterprises and associations," First Vice Prime Minister, Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv said, commenting on the introduction of tit-for-tat sanctions against certain groups of goods from the Russian Federation and the introduction of a special duty on goods of Russian origin from August 1.

According to the draft resolution, the imports of certain groups of goods from the following categories will be banned: industrial and agricultural products, mineral fertilizers, vehicles, etc.

"We propose preventing the outflow of capital to the aggressor state and raising the production capacities’ workload, boosting revenues to budgets of all levels, increasing the number of jobs and supporting the existing ones. We estimated the mirror image of these goods from the Russian Federation for 2018, totaling $510 million according to customs statistics," Kubiv noted.

The second measure taken by the Government is the establishment of a special duty on goods that will be imported from the territory of the Russian Federation.

"Starting from August 1, 2019, when importing goods originating from the territory of the aggressor state, a special duty is introduced as a percentage of the goods’ cost, regardless of other duties," Kubiv noted.

The duty payments will be transferred to a special fund of the state budget designed for import substitution measures taken by the Economic Development Ministry. Before the amendments to the budget law regarding the financing of the Ministry come into effect, the customs payments will be transferred to the general fund of the state budget. The expected revenues are more than UAH 3.7 billion.

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