Russia to reduce import duties for beer to nearly zero by 2018 as part of WTO obligations
MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - According to a document on Russia's obligations for market access through its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) the country will practically zero import duties for beer by 2018 after reducing them on annual basis over a six-year period. This document has been seen by Interfax.
Russia's current import duty on beer comes to 0.6 euro per liter.
Once Russia joins the WTO (Russia is expected to become a de-facto WTO member by mid-2012) the import duty will be maintained at its current level but a year after accession, in 2013, the rate will be reduced to 0.468 euro per liter. The rate will decrease in 2014 to 0.335 euro per liter, 2015 - 0.203 euro per liter, 2016 - 0.07 euro per liter, 2017 - 0.04 euro per liter, and 2018 - 0.018 euro per liter.
Therefore, the import duty for one half-liter bottle of beer, for example, will decrease from its current 30 eurocents to less than one eurocent in 2018.
For importing beer at a volumes over 10 liters, the duty will be reduced at the same rate but only over the period until 2017. After this, the import duty rate will hold at 0.04 euro per liter (this is the only exception from the obligations to reduce the duties by 2018).