The European Commission (EC) has proposed to suspend for one year the collection of import duties on all Ukrainian exports to the European Union, the EC communiqué said on Wednesday.
“I discussed with President Zelensky ways to support the economy, in addition to the macro-financial assistance and grants that we provide. We both agree on the critical importance of a quick and wide suspension of import duties to boost the economy of Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was quoted in the message.
According to her, the suspension of duties “will greatly facilitate the export of Ukrainian industrial and agricultural goods to the EU.” She promised continued economic assistance to Kyiv.
The EC proposal also provides for the suspension for one year of all EU anti-dumping and safeguard measures in force against Ukrainian steel exports. This move, explained in Brussels, is designed to help increase Ukraine’s exports to the EU, which will alleviate the plight of Ukrainian producers and exporters in the current situation in the country.
“The EU has never before taken such trade liberalization measures, which are unprecedented in their scope: giving Ukraine access to the EU market with zero tariffs, zero quotas,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission.
The European Commission points out that in the difficult conditions of the situation in Ukraine, the European Union wants to do everything possible to help the country “maintain its trade positions with the rest of the world and further deepen its trade relations with the EU.”
Brussels also reports that the EU is taking measures to facilitate land transport of goods to help export Ukrainian products outside the country. Thus, the European Commission has already begun liberalizing the conditions for Ukrainian truck drivers transporting goods between Ukraine and the EU, as well as actions to facilitate transit and use the EU infrastructure to direct Ukrainian exports to third countries.
A group of people’s deputies propose to the Parliament to refuse exemption from import duties, excise tax and VAT on car imports, bill No. 7311, the text of which is posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, testifies. the budget received less than 350 million hryvnia, and now the daily amount of benefits is 100 million hryvnia.
At the same time, not isolated cases of the importation of premium cars were recorded, the authors of the bill note, among them is the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Daniil Getmantsev.
The bill also proposes to return taxation for goods imported by single tax payers of the first or third group.
The authors of the bill point out that during the week of such relaxations, the budget received less than UAH 417 million.
As reported, on March 24, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in order to stimulate important imports for the country, among a number of goods for the period of martial law, exempted the import of vehicles by citizens from taxation (cars, motorcycles, trucks and buses).
According to the State Customs Service, over the month, Ukrainians have issued more than 19,000 cars on preferential terms, which created problems and delays for the import of humanitarian aid.
The situation with the import of goods after the abolition of VAT and duties discredits Ukraine in front of neighboring partner countries and indicates abuses when importing goods under the guise of “humanitarian aid”, therefore, amendments to the regulatory framework will be proposed in the near future, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure said Mustafa Nayem.
“I think that in the near future, my colleagues from the Ministry of Finance and the Customs Service will propose to the Cabinet of Ministers appropriate changes to the regulatory framework in order to correct this situation without harming real volunteers,” he wrote on Facebook. Nayem noted that 14.3 thousand cars were imported into the country in eight days after the abolition of customs duties. “Our partners in Poland, Slovakia and Romania are a little surprised by such an active renewal of the vehicle fleet of a warring country for which the whole world is raising funds for humanitarian assistance. For example, they are shocked by the industrial scale of imports” for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “luxury cars,” the deputy minister said..
According to him, there are dozens of BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, 2022 Audi Q7 and even Cadillac Escalade for UAH 3.1 million among them. Nayyem added that over the same period, “humanitarian aid” was imported into the country completely legally, without any customs payments, in the form of various fabrics – for UAH 360 million, mobile phones for almost UAH 200 million, and so on.
“Unfortunately, this is how some of our fellow citizens interpreted the government’s initiative to help volunteers and the army,” the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure stated.
As reported earlier, the head of the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Danil Getmantsev, said about the need to revise the introduced preferential regime for imports.
Record Agro LLC (Kyiv), the official distributor of the German breeding company Europlant, has resumed deliveries of high reproduction potato seeds from Germany to Ukraine, which were forced to stop with the start of the Russian military invasion.
On Tuesday, the website of the profile Ukrainian Association of Potato Producers (UAPC) reported on the import of the first batch of 22 tons of seed potatoes of the Bellarosa, Sanibel, Jeli, Vineta varieties.
“Potato seeds are categorized by the government as critical imports. There are no problems with its supplies. There are no queues at the border and customs,” Yuriy Dyak, director of Record Agro, is quoted in the message.
At the same time, it is specified that Ukrainian farms with the status of elite farms – certified seed enterprises – became the customers of the delivered batch. They will lay seed plantations in Ukraine for the 2023 harvest.
“We will be able to meet the needs of all elite farms in a very short time,” Dyak confirmed.
According to Record-Agro, at the moment the company is the only official importer of potato seeds in Ukraine, while the work of other seed farms is hampered by the military invasion of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation. The importer specified that Ukrainian farms are now growing seed potatoes from high reproductions purchased from European breeding companies in 2021.
As reported, by April 8, Ukraine had sown 1.07 million hectares of land with the main agricultural crops, which is 7.9% of the 13.44 million hectares planned for the current season, including 0.47 million ha. At the same time, 43.2 thousand hectares were sown with potatoes on the indicated date.
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 European Union, as part of the next package of sanctions, has limited the import of fertilizers from Russia.
The restrictions do not apply to deliveries before July 10 under contracts concluded before April 9 this year, according to the Official Journal of the EU.
From July 10, the European Union introduces quotas on the import of a number of Russian fertilizers for a period of one year. The quota for the import of potassium chloride (code 3104 20) will be 837.57 thousand tons, complex and other fertilizers containing potassium (codes 3105 20, 3105 60 and 3105 90) – 1 million 577.807 thousand tons.
The size of quotas can be adjusted by the European Commission.
There are no restrictions on the import of other types of fertilizers.
Earlier on Friday, the European Commission announced that as part of a new package of sanctions against Russia, it would take “measures to counteract the supply of potassium chloride from Belarus” bypassing the sanctions.
EU, FERTILIZERS, IMPORT, QUOTAS, RUSSIA
