The interagency commission for international trade on November 13, 2015 decided to introduce the final safeguard duty on imports of passenger cars from Russia for five years after the anti-subsidy investigation.

"The final safeguard measures in the form of imposing the final safeguard duties on imports of passenger cars made by Sollers-Far East LLC (17.66%), OJSC AvtoVAZ (14.57%) and other Russian manufacturers (10.41%) are taken," the commission said in an announcement in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper published on Thursday.

Passenger cars without the certificate of origin or if it is impossible to define their origin are imported to Ukraine with payment of the final safeguard duty of 17.66%.

The decision of the commission will take effect in 30 calendar days from the moment of the publication of the announcement.

The safeguard measures apply to new passenger cars with petrol and diesel engines that can carry no more than eight passengers (foreign trade code 8703). The duty does not apply to snowmobiles, golf cars and cars specifically designed for living in.

The commission said that several state support programs for Russian automobile manufacturers were studied and some of them were declared targeted subsidies, which gave grounds to apply safeguard measures in the amount of subsidies.

It was established that damage to Ukrainian automobile manufacturers was caused: in 2011-H1 2014 their production fell by 56%, sales on the domestic market decreased by 47%, sales profit was down by 91%, liquidity – by 26% and loading – by 29%.

The market share of Ukrainian manufacturers fell to 17%.

The anti-subsidy investigation was launched in September 2014 and it was extended for 14 more months in September 2015.