The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine exempted imported vaccines from coronavirus disease from VAT.
The corresponding government decree, adopted at a meeting on Wednesday, includes a number of antibiotics and vaccines for the prevention of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the lists of drugs that are exempt from VAT, approved by Resolutions No. 224 and No. 225.
As Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting, this decision will reduce the cost of imported vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19.
Belarus has placed temporary restrictions on the importation of poultry from the Republic of Tatarstan; the regions of Rostov, Samara, and Tomsk, Russia; the areas of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony, Germany; Corsica, France; Central Jutland, Denmark; as well as the provinces of Groningen and Gelderland, the Netherlands, the Veterinary and Food Supervision Department of the Agriculture and Food Ministry of the Republic of Belarus said.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, cases of highly pathogenic influenza in birds have been reported in these areas, the Belarus department said on its website.
Consequently, as of November 23, temporary restrictions have been introduced on the importation of live poultry, hatching and edible eggs, poultry meat, egg powder, egg mixture, egg albumen and other processed food from chicken eggs, down and feathers, non-disinfected game bird trophies, feed and feed additives, as well as other products from the said regions to Belarus.
All previously issued permits to import the specified goods and products have also been suspended. Meantime, goods and products subject to veterinary oversight and supervision that are subject to the restrictions and which have originated from the said regions prior to November 22 of the current year inclusive follow as per the usual regime, the department added.
“Meanwhile, additional oversight measures must be taken in order to ensure the biological protection of poultry facilities of all types of ownership,” the department said in the statement.
The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICMT) of Ukraine has introduced a special three-year duty on the import of some types of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspension and polyethylene, reducing its rate compared to the preliminary duty from 18% to 12.4% in the first year and again slightly narrowing its application in relation to PVC.
As stated in the announcement in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper on November 21, the decision of the commission under an application of Karpatnaftokhim LLC (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region) was made on November 20.
In the first decision made on May 22, the special duty was applied to polyethylene with a specific gravity of 0.94 or more, classified by codes 3901 20 10 00, 3901 20 90 00 of tariff heading, and polyvinyl chloride, classified by codes 3904 10 00 00, 3904 21 00 00, 3904 22 00 00.
This decision came into force on June 8, was suspended by the District Administrative Court of Kyiv on June 10 in the form of an interim measure under a claim of Subos-Techno LLC, and now the ICMT canceled it. The plaintiff said that initially the investigation was initiated under two commodity codes of the Ukrainian tariff headings, and the special duty was introduced under three codes, of which only one coincides with the original two. Subos-Techno also claimed that the PVC of the KSR-67 brands (for the production of rigid, semi-rigid and plasticized PVC, pipes, profiles, films, sheets) and KSF-70 (for the production of plasticized films, profiles, insulation, injection molded parts) are also different from those imported on the market.
As a result, on June 22, the commission narrowed the application of the provisional duty on PVC, indicating that it is a product with a Fickentcher constant in the range from 59 to 72, which can be classified under code 3904 10 00 00, except for emulsion and microsuspension polyvinyl chloride.
In the new decision, the duty is set for PVC with a Fickentcher constant from 64 to 69.
Structure of import of services in 1st halfyear of 2020 (graphically).
Ukraine exported 4,800 tonnes of cheese in January-October 2020, which is 19.5% less than in the same period in 2019.
According to the State Customs Service, in monetary terms, exports decreased by 15.9% and amounted to $18.47 million.
At the same time, import of cheese in the first 10 months of 2020 increased by 2.2 times, to 38,040 tonnes, in monetary terms by 2.1 times, to $168.62 million.
Exports of Ukrainian butter decreased 41.2%, to 9,360 tonnes, and in monetary terms also 41.2%, to $40.82 million. Import of this product in the reporting period amounted to 9,330 tonnes ($36.94 million) versus 1,990 tonnes ($10.12 million) in January-October 2019.
According to the ministry, export of milk and cream (condensed) in the first 10 months of 2020 decreased 27.1%, to 23,870 tonnes. Ukraine supplied condensed milk and cream for a total of $48.18 million, which is 30.8% less than in January-October last year. Import of this group of goods increased 2.9-fold, to 5,330 tonnes, in monetary terms by three times, to $12.06 million.
Ukrainian enterprises reduced the import of copper and copper products in value terms by 9% to $93.276 million in January-October this year compared to the same period last year.
According to customs statistics published by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, export of copper and copper products decreased 7.6% to $63.017 million in the first 10 months of 2020.
In October, copper and copper products were imported in the tune of $11.915 million, and exported in the tune of $7.934 million.
