Russians To Be Banned To Purchase Products From Belarus And Kazakhstan

The Russian government will ban trade turnover of certain goods imported from EAEC member-states in the country.

The government will have the right to prohibit the trade turnover of goods originating from other member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (the EAEU unites Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan) in Russia. The Ministry of Finance has prepared the corresponding draft law, which was approved by the governmental commission on legislative activities on February 13, a participant of the session said to RBC and the Finance Ministry's press service confirmed. The government has not announced the approval of a document by the Commission.

According to the draft law, the ban can affect the goods being imported in the countries which are allies of Russia from third countries according to the rules different from those of the EAEU and Russia. These are, in particular, products that are subject to low import duties in other countries of the EAEU, or products, which importers are granted benefits not provided for in the EAEU . In addition, the government will be able to ban the circulation of goods which import to Russia is prohibited or restricted, and "other categories of goods defined by decrees of the President of Russia," the bill says.

The purpose of the document - to ban the sale of goods from the countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) coming to Russia through the territory of EAEU member-countries, primarily through Kazakhstan, as well as to ban sale of goods on which sanctions were imposed, a federal official said to RBC. Current Russian trade conditions (membership in the WTO, sanctions and counter-sanctions, restrictions on goods from Ukraine and Turkey) are not consistent with the terms of trade of other EAEU countries, and this is not right, the director of the Center for International Trade Studies of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration Alexander Knobel said to RBC. The discrepancy between the rules on imports from third countries within the Customs Union should be eliminated sooner or later, he explains.