Ukraine to suspend Belarus products sanction in response to Belarus restriction lift on Ukraine

Ukraine is ready to suspend sanctions regarding some Belarusian products, introduced in response to discriminative actions by Belarus on restricting access of Ukrainian goods to its market, if Belarus lifts these restrictions completely, Ukrainian commissioner for European integration Valeriy Piatnytsky said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The parties have held consultations regarding this in Minsk, Piatnytsky said.

"It has been acknowledged that free trade agreements were virtually violated. Even though Belarus is not a World Trade Organization (WTO) member, however when joining this organization, Russia took the obligation that the Customs Union states will comply with these regulations," he said.

"Belarus has already taken a number of steps to rectify the situation and amended certain resolutions. On our part, we have held consultations with our producers and decided we can meet Belarus halfway by making the decision to suspend sanctions regarding Belarusian products," Piatnytsky said.

As of today, Belarusian restrictions continue to be in effect and Ukrainian exports have not been resumed for now, Piatnytsky said.

"Of course, we will monitor how they fulfill their resolution on ensuring access to the market for goods from Ukraine," the commissioner said.

"Even though our restriction measures were introduced until 2017, they can be resumed at any moment upon receiving complaints by Ukrainian producers on violations of conditions," he said.

It has been reported that on July 26 Ukraine introduced until 2017 a 60.05% fee on Belarusian beer, rubber tires and a number of refrigerating parts. The step was caused by the fact that on May 16 the Belarusian Council of Ministers introduced licensing for beer, certain pasta, confectionary, and raw materials for their production supplied outside the Customs Union.