Hahn: EU to address Russia-Ukraine trade war

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 - 17:00 (EEST) Section: Latest news

EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn says the European Union will act to resolve the ban on transporting Ukrainian goods to Central Asia, resulting from Russia`s trade limitations on transit shipments.
”Whatever we can do – we will do in order to avoid such developments, which are not conducive to the economic development of the region,” he said at the 7th Informal Eastern Partnership Dialogue Meeting in Kyiv on Tuesday, July 12.
”We will certainly use all our opportunities to address this issue,” he added.
”There is also something I would like to address in political terms. If there are, such as recently introduced bans not allowing, for instance, the transport of goods from one country, for instance, Belarus or Ukraine, to countries in the east of Europe or Asia because Russia has introduced such bans – this is not contributing to the development of the region. This should be understood as an unnecessary and not favorable measure, which we have to reject. Also, we have to discuss how to overcome this issue, because it`s not in our political interest to have these kinds of measures applied,” he said.
Hahn noted that trade restrictions are counterproductive and not in the interests of the citizens in the region.
Such restrictions also damage Russia, he said. ”Nor on the one side, nor on the other side of the border,” he added.
As UNIAN reported, the EU also believes that Ukraine`s retaliatory trade measures to curb trade with Russia are not constructive.
On July 1, Russia imposed additional restrictions on the movement of Ukrainian goods through its territory. In particular, it extended an embargo on certain Ukrainian foods and industrial commodities until December 31, 2017, along with limitations on transit supplies to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The legislative changes also provide for a complete ban on the transit of embargoed goods or the use of respective customs duties.
Ukraine, in turn, extended its embargo on Russian goods, which was originally introduced on December 30, 2015 for a six-month period, and will continue in effect until December 31, 2017.
Additionally, Ukraine and Russia introduced reciprocal trade restrictions, as of January 2016. According to various estimates, Ukrainian producers sustained losses exceeding $1 billion due to Russian-imposed restrictions.