Agriculture Ministry submits grain import duty scrapping proposal to govt commission - Fyodorov
BRAZIL. Feb 20 (Interfax) - The Russian Agriculture Ministry has submitted to a governmental commission a proposal for temporarily zeroing out the import duty on grain before July 1 of this year, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov told the press in Brazil on Wednesday during a working visit to that country by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"We submitted a draft of the corresponding decision to the sub-commission for customs-tariff regulation of the governmental commission for economic cooperation and integration," Fyodorov said.
In a week and a half to two weeks, the sub-commission for customs-tariff and non-tariff regulation and foreign trade protective measures, which is chaired by Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov, plans to address this issue for its further submission to the Eurasian Economic Commission for coordination with representatives of Kazakhstan and Belarus, Russia's fellow Customs Union members.
"It is assumed that this measure will be in force before the next harvest, that is, before July 1," Fyodorov said.
How long the import duty is null will depended on how the Eurasian Economic Commission treats the matter. At present, the duty is 5%.