The State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine will allow the import of books from the Russian Federation to Ukrainian territory, referring to the law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in 2016, the press service of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting reported.
“The issuance of permits for the import of books from the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine is carried out in accordance with the law that was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada at the end of 2016. This law provides that import permits are not granted exclusively to books of anti-Ukrainian content, as well as those containing propaganda in favor of the aggressor state,” the message said.
The department said that over the entire period of the law and, accordingly, the functioning of the licensing system, not a single book of anti-Ukrainian content has entered Ukraine legally, and the volume of books brought from the Russian Federation has decreased 12 times compared to 2011. It is reported that during 2017-2020 the law of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting made it possible to import into Ukraine 31,000 titles of books from Russia. Most of the books allowed for import are works of world classics, children’s and popular science literature. Part of the permits were issued for the import into Ukraine of Ukrainian-language books by Ukrainian publishing houses, printed in the Russian Federation.
In addition, during 2017-2020, the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting provided 4,274 refusals to importers to import book products from the Russian Federation. Most of the refusals related to the submission of an incomplete package of documents by the applicants, and in 274 cases – anti-Ukrainian content found in publications.
Almost 1.5 million copies of anti-Ukrainian publications were not allowed to be imported into Ukraine. At the same time, the department reported that a complete cessation or restriction of the import of Russian books into the territory of Ukraine is possible only through the adoption of an appropriate law, which would provide for an embargo on their import.
BOOKS, IMPORT, RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN STATE COMMITTEE ON TELEVISION
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 enhanced sanctions of the Russian Federation against Ukrainian goods will affect 1.3% of current exports of Ukrainian goods for January-September 2019, which in monetary terms is $31.2 million, and about 0.4% of current imports of Russian goods to Ukraine for the specified period, or $21.4 million, a source at the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture has told Interfax.
The largest restrictions regarding the ban on imports to Ukraine relate to the following items: boilers for central heating for $8.7 million, parts of pumps for $3.6 million, radiators for central heating with non-electric heating for $2.8 million.
The source noted that a significant part of goods that fell under the sanctions is industrial medical goods: plastic products for $6.5 million, pipes, tubes, hoses for $4.5 million, hygienic or pharmaceutical products from vulcanized rubber for $1.4 million, other products made of vulcanized rubber, except for hard, for $3.7 million.
At the same time, the ban on import to Ukraine of Russian paper and cardboard for recycling in monetary terms is estimated at $21.4 million. According to data of the State Statistics Service for the nine months of 2019, the volume of the Russian Federation in the total import of this item is 52.6%.
As for the supply of starch, in January-September 2019 this product was not exported to the Russian Federation.
“At the same time, there is a tendency to increase the use of EU tariff quotas for starch with a volume of 10,000 tonnes compared to 2016. During 2017-2019, the quota is used almost in full,” the source said.
The government of the Russian Federation by the resolution of December 16, 2019 expanded the list of goods prohibited for imports to Ukraine, supplementing it with the position “paper and cardboard for recycling.” In addition, the list of goods originating in Ukraine, which are forbidden for imports to the Russian Federation, was expanded.
The European side has proposed a new framework of work with the goal of signing a long-term contract for the supply of Russian gas through Ukraine after 2020, and the Ukrainian side hopes it will be signed before the end of this year, Minister of Energy and Environment Protection of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel has said.
“Today we’ve discussed with our European partners and accepted new proposals regarding the framework for working with a gas transit contract. We fully support these proposals and are grateful to our European partners for them,” Orzhel said following the fourth round of talks in the trilateral Ukraine-Russia-European Commission format in Brussels.
According to him, these proposals “are based on a ten-year contract, as well as on volumes of 60 billion cubic meters of stable volumes and 30 billion cubic meters of variable volumes of gas transportation by the gas transportation system.”
“There are additional points that we sign a transport agreement in accordance with European law,” the minister stressed.
At the same time, he assured that Ukraine has a clear position in order to guarantee stable supplies in the European direction.
“We hope that we will sign the agreement (on transit) before the end of the year and ensure the reliability of supplies to the European market,” he added.
