The Belarusian air carrier Belavia has extended the suspension of all of its flights to Ukraine until September 30, 2021, in line with a similar decision adopted by Ukraine, the Belavia press service told Interfax.
“The Ukrainian side informed us of the extension of its ban on Belavia flights until September 30, 2021. This is their official position. Consequently, the suspension of all fights to Ukraine has also been extended. We can’t say at this point how the situation will unfold in the future,” the press service said.
As reported, due to the Ukrainian authorities’ ban on Belavia’s flights, the Belarusian air carrier had to cancel its flights to Ukraine between May 26 and August 25 of this year.
European Union member states, Ukraine and some other countries prohibited Belarusian airlines from passing through their airspace in late May due to the Ryanair flight landing incident in Minsk. Thus, Belavia has lost access to more than two-thirds of passenger destination countries after it was banned from using the airspace of a number of countries.
The first transaction for the export of milk powder to Ukraine has been completed at the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), the press service of the BUCE has reported.
“Following the trading session, a Ukrainian company purchased from a Belarusian manufacturer a trial batch of 40 tonnes of skimmed milk powder for $108,000. Earlier, Ukrainian participants mainly purchased scrap metals, construction materials, flour and plant seeds at the BUCE, and showed no interest in domestic dairy products,” the press service said.
The first deal on the purchase of Belarusian milk powder by the Ukrainian company on the stock exchange is considered a landmark event in terms of export diversification.
“This, first of all, was facilitated by the active work of the exchange to attract new buyers from Ukraine to the auction. In particular, the company that completed the transaction is a large importer of agricultural products to the Ukrainian market. On the other hand, an important role was played by the flexible marketing policy of Belarusian dairy processors, who were able to offer their products at a competitive price. As practice shows, a trial purchase is usually followed by transactions of a much larger volume. We look forward to a similar scenario in this case,” the press service said.
They also noticed that Ukraine is in the top five countries in terms of the number of companies accredited on the exchange.
“At the same time, in the first half of the year, the number of Ukrainian participants increased by 16% and amounted to 326. Exchange trade turnover with Ukraine has also significantly increased: following the results of the six months, it reached $24.6 million, which is 58% more than in the same period in 2020,” the report says.
In general, in the first half of 2021, the export of milk powder through the BUCE increased by 4.5 times. The main buyers were residents of the Russian Federation.
The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade has extended for five months the antidumping investigation into Ukraine’s import of plywood originating from Belarus, initiated on June 22, 2020.
The decision of the commission of July 13, 2021 to initiate an investigation comes into force from the moment of its publication, it is indicated in the notification published in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper dated July 23.
“The commission, in accordance with the adopted decision, decided to extend the antidumping investigation into the import of plywood originating from the Republic of Belarus to Ukraine by 18 months,” the notice says.
As reported, the said antidumping investigation, the decision on which entered into force on June 25, 2020, was initiated by Ukraine on the basis of complaints from Ukrainian companies, namely Kostopil Plywood Plant LLC, Ukrhosptovary Private Enterprise, Uniplit LLC, Standard 2002 LLC, Start production cooperative.
According to the applicants, during the observation period up to the third quarter of 2019, the share of plywood imports from Belarus increased in absolute terms by 691%, in terms of consumption – by 559%, and production – by 858%. At the same time, the price of imported plywood was higher than the price of the applicant (except for 2016-2017), which led to a negative trend in its performance in the domestic market.
The European Union has officially published its list of sectoral sanctions against Belarus.
In line with the decision of the EU Council, which was published in the EU’s official journal, the ban on import or transit from Belarus of highly significant export goods for the country, petroleum products and potash fertilizers, applies to contracts signed after June 25, 2021. The EU sanctions thus do not apply to current contracts for supplies of petroleum products and potash fertilizers.
“It shall be prohibited […] to transport petroleum products if they originate in Belarus, or are being exported from Belarus to any other country; to provide, directly or indirectly, technical assistance, brokering services, financing or financial assistance, including financial derivatives, as well as insurance and re-insurance […]. The prohibitions […] shall be without prejudice to the execution of contracts concluded before June 25, 2021, or ancillary contracts necessary for the execution of such contracts,” the document said.
Similar sanctions are envisaged for potash fertilizers from Belarus. “It shall be prohibited to import, purchase or transfer, directly or indirectly, potassium chloride (‘potash’) products […] from Belarus, whether or not originating in Belarus. The prohibitions […] shall be without prejudice to the execution of contracts concluded before June 25, 2021, or ancillary contracts necessary for the execution of such contracts,” it said.
BANS, BELARUS, EUROPEAN UNION, IMPORT, OIL PRODUCTS, TRANSIT
The European Business Association (EBA) has called on the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade of Ukraine to make efforts to resume the free trade regime with Belarus.
“The European Business Association calls on the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade of Ukraine to make every effort to restore the free trade regime,” the EBA said.
“In June 2021, Belarus introduced an individual licensing regime for the import of a range of Ukrainian goods. The new regime should be applied to household goods, agricultural machinery, etc. The decision was caused by the fact that the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade of Ukraine introduced a special duty on imports of wheeled vehicles from the Republic of Belarus to Ukraine,” the report says.
“This issue is extremely relevant for a number of Ukrainian companies that have already suffered from the introduction of new trade restrictions and suffered losses of millions of dollars,” it reds.
“This situation has put many producers in a difficult position, as many businesses have cooperated with the neighboring country. Thus, if the situation is not tackled, some Ukrainian companies will be forced to partially close production, cut jobs, and so on. In the absence of a rapid response from the Ukrainian government, the Belarusian market could be lost for years. The losses for both countries can be reduced if both sides reconsider their decisions, which grossly violate the free trade regime,” the EBA said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine will make every effort to find alternative markets for the sale of their goods to Ukrainian companies affected by the sanctions of Belarus, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“We certainly calculated that Belarus would want to do something in return, and we were ready for this scenario … Any Ukrainian company that suffers from Belarusian sanctions should immediately contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we, together with the trade representative of Ukraine will make every effort to find an alternative market for selling goods of this company,” Kuleba said on the air of Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech (Svoboda Slova) program on Ukraine TV channel.
Earlier on Friday, Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said that Belarus was introducing a 6-month individual licensing regime for a number of Ukrainian goods imported to that country.
