Events

MINSK, 8 August (BelTA) – The Foreign Ministry of Belarus hopes that in the future any issues in the trade and economic relations between Belarus and Ukraine will be addressed with the help of consultations, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

The press service noted that the Foreign Ministry hailed the decision of the Interdepartmental International Trade Commission of Ukraine dated 5 August to suspend the validity of some decisions made by the commission. “The licensing of the Ukrainian import to Belarus will not be applied from the date the decision takes affect. Thus, any restrictions introduced in the mutual trade will be totally removed,” the press service said.

“We hope that in the future any problematic issues in the bilateral trade and economic relations between our countries will be addressed through consultations only, constructively and on a mutually beneficial basis,” the Foreign Ministry stressed.

As was reported, on 19 August Ukraine lifted special customs duties on Belarusian goods.

Belarus had earlier introduced temporary, six-month, licensing on the imports of beer (from 1 May), cement, polished glass and glass containers, some sorts of macaroni and confectionary products (from 1 June) from outside the Customs Union.

The Interdepartmental International Trade Commission of Ukraine had special customs duties in place on the import of several types of commodities from Belarus. Special customs duties were introduced on the import of Belarusian confectionary, dairy products, incandescent electric lamps, fertilizers and refrigerators. The 55.29% special customs duty should have been in place until 31 December 2016 (inclusively). Besides, a special duty was also introduced on the import of Belarusian tires, malt beer and component parts for refrigerating equipment. The size of the duty is 60.05% of the customs commodity cost, with the same period of application.