Ukraine to lift sanctions against Belarus if Minsk makes a step forward

Kyiv is ready to lift sanctions on Belarusian goods, if Minsk removes restrictions on the Ukrainian exports to the Belarusian market, announced government’s Commissioner for European Integration Valery Pyatnitskiy at a briefing.

The sides have held consultations on trade issues in Minsk, according to the government official.

“It was recognized that in fact all agreements on free trade have been broken. Despite that Belarus is not a member of the World Trade Organization, Russia entering the organization obliged that the countries of the Customs Union comply with the rules,” added Pyatnitskiy.

He noted that the sides are ready to fix the situation. “Belarus has already made a few steps towards fixing of the situation, made changes to the certain statements. Our side and our producers conducted a consultation and decided that we can make a step towards Belarus, approving a decision on lifting sanctions against Belarusian goods. The suspension will be valid in case Belarusian side completely removes restrictions on goods supply to the Belarusian market from Ukraine, i.e. cancels the licensing,” said Pyatnitskiy.

As a reminder, on July 26 Ukraine introduced 60.05% duty on Belarusian beer, rubber tires and some components of the refrigerating equipment till the end 2017.

The reason of this step was the introduction of licensed beer, some types of pasta, pastries and raw materials for their production from outside the territory of the Customs Union, adopted by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus on May 16.