25 february 2011

First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov holds a meeting of the sub-commission on customs tariff and non-tariff regulation and protective measures in foreign trade of the Government Commission on Economic Development and Integration

Participants:

Following the discussion at the meeting, the participants agreed on complete conditional exemption from customs duties for civilian aircraft seating no more than 19 people that belong to foreign citizens and are imported temporarily into the customs territory of Russia to be used for incidental non-profit domestic deliveries.

To develop the processing of fish and to compensate for the shortage of domestic produce, the sub-commission supported a proposal to cancel the current 10% import customs duty on fresh and chilled capelin (the Russian classification code is ТН ВЭД ТС 0302 69 990 1). This measure is directed against inflation and will help improve the supply of the population with fish products.

Participants in the meeting approved a proposal to cancel temporarily (for three months) the import duty on soybean oil meal in order to reduce the cost of fodder for the cattle. The adoption of this proposal will help curb the growth of prices on meat.

As far as non-tariff regulation measures are concerned, the sub-commission agreed to change supplements No.1 and No.2 to the agreement on the rules of licensing in foreign trade of commodities requiring an application on the issue of export or import license.

Participants in the meeting also supported a number of changes regulating the procedures for the import and export on the territory of the Customs Union of precious metals, precious stones and raw material commodities containing precious metals.

The sub-commission's decisions are recommended for consideration by the Customs Union's Commission.

In conclusion, the sub-commission considered inexpedient to change import customs duties on individual types of agricultural equipment (harrows, seeders and sweepers) and electric meat grinders.