Export duties No. 1 problem in CIS free trade zone project - minister
LIVADIA, Ukraine. April 15 (Interfax) - Export duties are the main problem to be solved before declaring the Commonwealth of Independent States a free trade zone, a senior Russian minister said on Friday.
"The main issue is export duties in mutual trade. The Russian Federation reaffirms its position that levying export duties on individual types of merchandise in the Russian Federation is, in fact, a fiscal measure. It is something like an extension to our tax system and has nothing to do with any restrictions in trade between CIS countries or in our trade with other states," First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told a news conference in Livadia after a meeting of the CIS Economic Council in the Crimean resort.
However, sooner or later, Russia will abolish export duties, Shuvalov said.
"This has been declared on repeated occasions, but our tax law systems will need to be modified for this task to be carried out. When this happens, it will be a separate subject for discussion. At the moment, we will give it consideration not only at national level, but also with our partners in the Customs Union [Belarus and Kazakhstan]," he said.
It will be several years before Russia scraps its export duties, Shuvalov said. "Until then, we believe it is our sovereign right, and Russia will defend it within the multilateral free trade zone and in other formats," he said. "It is the principle of Russia that it is the national, sovereign right of every state to decide to levy export duties."
