The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine supported a decision to impose a complete embargo on imports of goods from the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economy said on Sunday, citing First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko.
“Such a decisive step by Ukraine can serve as an example for our Western partners and will encourage them to increase sanctions against Russia. Including the energy embargo and the isolation of all Russian banks,” she is quoted as saying.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the embargo on Russian imports will block foreign exchange earnings in the Russian Federation by $6 billion annually.
As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on April 6 instructed the government to formalize the termination of trade between Ukraine and Russia.
According to the State Customs Service of Ukraine, last year the trade turnover between the countries increased by 38.7%, to $10.09 billion from $7.28 billion.
In particular, imports increased by 45.9%, to $6.65 billion from $4.56 billion, while exports – by 26.5%, to $3.44 billion from $2.71 billion.
According to the State Statistics Service, imports from the Russian Federation to Ukraine increased last year by 33.9%, to $6.08 billion, while exports to the Russian Federation increased by 26.2%, to $3.41 billion.
The main import items from the Russian Federation last year were oil and oil products – $3.43 billion (an increase of 33.5%), engineering products – $418.3 million (21.7% up), plastics and polymeric materials – $351.6 million (61.7% up), ferrous metals – $301 million (64.7% up), products of inorganic chemistry – $161.6 million (83.6% up), aluminum and aluminum products– $137.6 million (54.5% up), rubber – $126.4 million (34.8% up), glass and glass products – $115 million (65.7% up), and various chemical products – $99.1 million (85.6% up).
This list also includes nickel and nickel products – $94.1 million (83.3% up), means of land transport (except railway) – $84.5 million (56.3% up), electric machines – $81.7 million (28.4% up), ferrous metal products – $73.5 million (58.3% up), organic chemical compounds – $70.2 million (19.5% up), cardboard and paper – $59.3 million (38.2% less), and essential oils – $53.4 million (9.2% up).
In the overall structure of Ukraine’s imports, Russia accounted for 8.4%, exports – 5%.
The leadership of Ukraine will continue to seek the introduction of an oil embargo on Russia.
“Unfortunately, we have not reached the oil embargo yet. We will continue to work to convince our partners of the oil embargo,” the head of the President’s Office wrote on Tuesday in his Telegram channel.
Thus, he commented on the introduction by the European Union of the fifth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Earlier, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced proposals for new sanctions of the fifth EU package against the Russian Federation.
A number of enterprises representing the dairy industry are preparing a statement for consideration by the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade to ban the import of dairy products from Belarus to Ukraine, since the embargo it introduced in 2016 on Ukrainian dairy products is a discriminatory and unfriendly action.
This was announced by Head of the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine Vadym Chaharovsky to Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
“We believe that in this case it is necessary to apply Article 29 of the law on foreign economic activity on protection from unfriendly actions of states or economic groups. We believe that the Republic of Belarus took such discriminatory unfriendly actions against Ukraine,” he said.
Chaharovsky said that in 2015, Belarus supported the Russian embargo on the import of Ukrainian dairy products, which came into effect on January 1, 2016. At the same time, the Ukrainian market is currently open for the products of 14 milk processing enterprises from Belarus.
According to Article 29 of the law on foreign economic activity, in response to discriminatory and/or unfriendly actions of other states, customs unions or economic groups, Ukraine may apply a full or partial ban on trade; deprivation of most favored nation or preferential special treatment; introduction of special duties; introduction of a licensing regime for foreign economic operations; establishment of quotas.
The head of the union said that the Ministry of Economy refused to conduct a special investigation of the growing imports of dairy products to Ukraine, an application for which was submitted in February 2021 by a group of 14 enterprises representing the dairy industry. He said that the enterprises are going to submit a repeated application within the next 10 days.
