The Cabinet of Ministers has extended until December 31, 2019 the embargo on a host of Russian goods and the import duties on other Russian goods that were introduced in 2016 in response to Russian trade restrictions against Ukraine.

The extension was approved without discussion at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Under a December 30, 2015 decision, the Ukrainian government subjected Russian goods to import duties set by Ukrainian customs effective from January 2, 2016. In addition, the preferences for Russian goods under the October 18, 2011 free trade agreement were canceled.

The Russian embargo on food products from Ukraine has been in effect since January 1, 2016. In response, Ukraine banned imports of Russian food products as well as a host of other goods whose total value equals that of the Ukrainian exports banned by Russia.

After dropping steeply in 2014-2016, bilateral trade began recovering in 2017: Ukraine boosted exports to Russia 9.6%, to $3.936 billion and imports from Russia rose 39.9%, to $7.204 billion.

In the ten months of 2018, Ukrainian exports to Russia dropped 7.1%, to $3.03 billion while imports from Russia continued growing, by 20.1%, to $6.629 billion. As a result, the trade deficit with Russia widened by 1.6 times in the ten months of 2018 year-on-year, to $3.599 billion.