How much will Belarus lose due to Ukrainian duties?

More than others, exporters of hosiery, tractors and tires may suffer from restrictive measures.

Duties on Belarusian exports

From January 20, 2016, Ukraine plans to introduce a special duty on some Belarusian goods. Restrictive measures include MILK and cream, cheeses and cottage cheese, confectionery, malt beer and vodka, shampoos and matches, certain types of hosiery, tires and tractors, and other goods.

The size of the special duty is 39.2% of the customs value of the goods, which actually makes it uncompetitive on the Ukrainian market.

The Ukrainian authorities motivate the introduction of a special duty with "discriminatory and unfriendly actions on the part of Belarus in relation to the enterprises of the confectionery and brewing industries."

In response to the "hellish" ruling

As Dmitry Mironchik, press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, explained, the claims of the Ukrainian side concern the need for a sanitary and hygienic examination of Ukrainian goods supplied to our country.

We are talking about the resolution of the Belarusian government No. 666, which came into force on August 27 this year. The document provides for a mandatory state sanitary and hygienic examination of foreign-made products.

Belarusian business has repeatedly criticized this decision of the government. The Republican Confederation of Entrepreneurship, in a letter to the President dated September 4, asked to suspend the decree. According to the business union, the new conditions make it extremely difficult to work with the import of goods to Belarus.

“Under the current conditions, there may be a shortage of a certain part of imported goods, a significant rise in the cost of imported goods, an increase in business costs and, as a result, a decrease in tax revenues to the budget,” the RCP letter says.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry does not see discrimination in the sanitary and hygienic examination of Ukrainian products.

“This rule applies to manufacturers from all countries that are not members of the Eurasian Economic Union. There is an objective need to control imported products in order to protect the HEALTH of our citizens,” Dmitry Mironchik explained.

According to him, at present there are no grounds for reconsidering this decision.

“We will bring this position to our Ukrainian colleagues and try to find a solution to this issue within the framework of bilateral consultations,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that MINSK and Kyiv have exchanged trade sanctions.

In May-June last year, Belarus introduced licensing for the import of beer, as well as confectionery products from outside the Customs Union. According to Ukrainian confectioners, they were forced to raise prices by up to 500%, so they were forced to actually curtail the supply of sweets to Belarus.

“Adequately, Ukraine has introduced customs duties on our sensitive goods, such as refrigerators, tires, fertilizers, dairy products - more than 55%, which has become impassable,” Belarusian Ambassador to Ukraine Valentin Velichko noted a year ago.

In August, the parties managed to resolve the conflict situation.

“A number of consultations have been held. Now all these moments have been canceled, both at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and at the level of the Belarusian government. From August 19, all customs offices have instructions, circulars that everything is returning to the free trade zone, ”said Valentin Velichko.

How much will Belarus lose?

Belarus could lose tens of millions of dollars due to restrictive measures.

For example, in the first nine months of this year, Belarus supplied Ukraine with confectionery products worth $217.9 thousand, cheese and cottage cheese - for $225.7 thousand, vodka - for $2.7 million, malt beer - for $4, $8 million, hosiery $6.5 million, tractors and tractors $30 million, tires $36 million.

Of course, the list of goods does not include oil products, the EXPORT of which to Ukraine exceeded $1.2 billion in nine months, but Belarus may suffer considerable losses in the above positions.

For this reason, the Belarusian authorities will have to negotiate again with Ukraine in order to resolve the conflict before it escalates into another trade war.