Belarus lifts licensing restrictions on Ukrainian products

On July 24^th, the Council of Ministers signed a regulation, which abolished the temporary licensing on goods supply from the CIS countries, signatories to the Free Trade Zone Agreement.

The Belarus’ government was prompted to adopt this resolution due to harsh reciprocal measures against Belarusian goods proposed by Ukraine. In turn, Ukraine is expected to suspend the introduction of ‘special’ duties on Belarusian goods; the assortment of Ukrainian beer and chocolates will expand and prices will go down. However, Belarus will continue using restrictive practices in respect of consumer imports. The main risk is the potential changes in the Ukrainian Government, which could lead to technical problems with the timely abolition of the Ukrainian government’s previous decisions and result in Belarus re-introducing temporary licensing on Ukrainian products.