Новости

According to the Public Opinion Foundation, almost every second Russian (47 percent of respondents) believes that the decision made a year ago to allow parallel imports in the Russian Federation (the importation of foreign-made goods into the country without the consent of the manufacturer or copyright holder) was correct.

Respondents emphasize that parallel imports in the current situation help to provide Russians with a large selection of goods and avoid their shortage.

19 percent of those surveyed hold the opposite view, believing that domestic production should be supported, and quality control is difficult with parallel imports.

34 percent have not decided on their position on this issue.

Russian newspaper

INTERFAX.RU - Since April 10, Rosselkhoznadzor has banned the import of wheat seeds produced by the scientific and practical center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for agriculture (Zhodino).

According to the regulator, this decision was made in connection with the detection in the seeds of a quarantine object for Russia and the EAEU member countries - dwarf smut of wheat.

Dwarf smut of wheat is a dangerous quarantine disease caused by a smut fungus. The whole wheat plant as a whole is affected, the ear is deformed. The defeat leads to a significant decrease in yield. Infection occurs mainly through infected seeds and soil.

INTERFAX.RU - A 200% duty on the import of aluminum products into the United States, in which the metal of Russian origin is present, comes into force on Monday.

The tariff applies to products regardless of their nominal origin. A month earlier, a similar duty on the import of aluminum and aluminum products produced directly in Russia came into force.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine last year, no restrictions have been imposed on Russian metal and Rusal, which produces it. Rusal is the world's second largest aluminum producer outside of China, with a global market share of about 6%. Although the US administration considered sanctions against Russian aluminum back in February 2022, the authorities backed it down then, as such measures could undermine global supplies of this metal.

The US administration noted that these measures in the current situation will help American aluminum producers to withstand competition.

Such harsh tariffs will effectively stop the import of metal from Russia to the United States, Bloomberg reported earlier, which announced in early February that a 200% duty would soon be introduced. This measure has been under consideration for several months, the agency's interlocutors said. They also added that the US is targeting Russian metal because Russian companies, in their opinion, are dumping the US market, hurting US companies.

Last year, the US accounted for 4.6% of Rusal's revenue (6.2% a year earlier). Aluminum from Russia has traditionally accounted for about 10% of total US imports.

One of the lobbyists for restrictive measures against Russian aluminum was the American Alcoa. Alcoa has previously sought to remove Russian metal from the LME listing. The company expressed concern that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in addition to the resulting humanitarian and energy crisis, could distort the market nature of aluminum prices and increase systemic risks to the reliability of the LME aluminum contract. The exchange refused to impose restrictions on Russian metal, saying in mid-November that it "should not make or impose ethical judgments on the broad market."

Against the backdrop of the introduction of the European embargo on the supply of petroleum products from Russia, their deliveries to Singapore increased, Reuters calculated. Fuel not only remains in the country, but also goes to neighboring countries.

Imports of Russian diesel and naphtha to Singapore in 2023 increased significantly, Reuters writes, citing its calculations based on government data and information from analysts.

In the first quarter of the year, naphtha imports almost tripled, from about 261 thousand tons at the end of 2022 to 741 tons. This is about 23% of the country's total naphtha imports, the agency notes.

Diesel imports in March reached a maximum in more than a year: Singapore received 46,000 tons of Russian diesel this month, although only 20,000 came in last year. The last maximum for the month was recorded in December 2021 - 95,000. tons. According to Reuters, at least 44,000 tons of Russian diesel is expected to be delivered to Singapore in April.

At the end of March, the agency reported on record deliveries of Russian fuel oil to Singapore and Malaysia as well: they amounted to over 1.1 million tons.

Petroleum products from Singapore can also go to other countries - South Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Reuters specifies.

From the beginning of February, the embargo imposed by the European Union on the supply of petroleum products to EU member states, as well as the price ceiling, began to operate. The limit differs depending on the type of fuel: if the product is traded at a premium to crude oil, like diesel, then it is $100 per barrel; if at a discount, like fuel oil, then $45 per barrel. Products that will be sold at prices above the established limit are prohibited from being delivered by sea to third countries, and in this case it is also impossible to provide financial or technical services during transportation.

Back in December, President Vladimir Putin, in response to a similar oil embargo, signed a decree banning fuel supplies to foreign individuals and companies if the contracts "directly or implicitly provide for the use of a price cap mechanism."

RBC

/TASS/. A new package of Japanese export sanctions against Russia due to the situation around Ukraine came into force on Friday. This was announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.

The updated list of goods prohibited for export to Russia includes, in particular, balloons, gliders, non-powered aircraft and their components, parachutes, aircraft braking systems, ground aviation training equipment, drones and components for them. All children's toys with wheels, as well as prefabricated models, puzzles and puzzles are prohibited.

In addition, we are talking about a ban on the supply of rolled iron and non-alloy steel, stainless or other alloyed steels. The list includes hydrometers, barometers, instruments for measuring pressure, as well as flow, level and other parameters of liquids or gases, instruments for physical, chemical and meteorological analysis.

It is forbidden to export telescopes, binoculars, optical instruments, compasses, navigational instruments. The list includes cameras specially designed for underwater and aerial photography, as well as golf carts.

About sanctions

According to the Japanese agency, the expansion of the export embargo is being carried out as part of a new package of sanctions approved on February 28. Then the Japanese Cabinet introduced individual restrictions, including the freezing of assets in case of detection, against 48 individuals, 73 organizations and Rosbank separately. In addition, export restrictions were imposed against 21 organizations, including Wagner PMC.

Japan's sanctions, which were introduced in several stages due to the situation in Ukraine, already affect about 1,000 people and about 100 organizations from Russia. In addition, Japan froze the assets of Alfa-Bank, VTB, VEB.RF, Novikombank, Otkritie Bank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank, Sberbank, Sovcombank, as well as about 40 other organizations and companies.

Japan has also approved a list of goods and technologies prohibited for export, it already contains about 800 items. Among them are semiconductors, maritime and aviation security equipment, telecommunications equipment, communications equipment, military products, including weapons, software, oil refining equipment, trucks, dump trucks, bulldozers, railway locomotives, machine tools and other electrical equipment used in industry. In addition, a ban was imposed on the supply of luxury goods to Russia, including cars worth more than 6 million yen (about $49 thousand), as well as on the import of gold from Russia. It also banned the export of certain chemicals to Russia, including chlorine, methanol, acetone, ethylene, and sodium hypochlorite.

PRIME. The quota of the Russian Federation for the import of tomatoes of Turkish origin has been selected by 98%, there have not yet been any requests from the Turkish side for its prolongation, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Oksana Lut told reporters.

“We have not yet had an appeal for a prolongation… If there is an appeal, we can prolong it, but it’s a question of demand,” Lut said. According to her, Turkish tomatoes are now a niche group - they may be a little cheaper than domestic ones, but consumer preferences speak in favor of domestic products.

“We monitor the consumption index, what people like: they still like our tomatoes more. There are other tomatoes on the market, but still our tomatoes prevail in terms of preferences. Therefore, we believe and see that the consumer votes for domestic goods,” she added .

Russia has been imposing an embargo on the supply of a number of products from Turkey since January 1, 2016 in response to the Turkish Air Force attack on the Russian Su-24 in Syria at the end of November 2015. On November 1, 2017, the ban on the import of tomatoes from Turkey was lifted, and on May 1, 2018, Russia lifted the restriction on the number of exporting companies, while leaving a total quota for supplies of 50,000 tons per year.

After that, the quota was increased several times, now it is 350 thousand tons per year: according to Loot, at the moment it has already been selected by 98%. At the same time, the First Deputy Minister recalled that the Russian Federation produces more than 3 million tons of its own tomatoes per year.

Lut also said that there are no plans to impose any restrictions on the import of vegetables and potatoes, because, despite a sufficient harvest, they do not lie until the end of the season, because sufficient storage facilities are still under construction. "Therefore, in any case, in order not to be left without products, we will still have to import - we start importing from April," she said.

"If we are engaged in breeding varieties that have a greater keeping quality and at the same time do not deteriorate, remain in normal consumer characteristics, then we will go into additional demand. But as long as we live in this vein, and, of course, there can be no restrictions on imports, because then we are left without the required amount of production," Lut added. She recalled that in 2022, the Russian Federation produced 18.8 million tons of potatoes and 13 million tons of vegetables.

/TASS/. Imports of Russian goods to the US in February rose to $642.8 million from $508.6 million recorded in January, according to data published on Wednesday in the monthly report on trade turnover of the main US statistical agency - the Census Bureau.

In December 2022, the volume of imports of Russian goods to the United States amounted to $638.4 million, in November - $594.3 million.

The volume of exports of American products to Russia in February increased to $61.2 million compared to January - in that month the corresponding figure was $44.6 million.

As the US Census Bureau reported in early February, the volume of exports of American goods to Russia in 2022 became a record low for the entire time of calculating the indicators of Russian-American trade and amounted to $1.7 billion. The agency noted that the volume of exports of American products to Russia in the past year fell by about 3.7 times - from about $6.4 billion in 2021.

/TASS/. The experiment on the use of customs (“bonded”) warehouses when registering e-commerce goods imported into the Russian Federation started on April 1, 2023. The corresponding decree is published on the website of the Russian government.

The experiment will last a year (until April 1, 2024). It is assumed that such a measure will simplify and speed up the delivery of goods.

Bonded warehouse - a special economic zone where online stores can import goods from abroad and store them under customs control, but without customs clearance, payment of VAT, excises and customs duties, without licensing and quotas for the goods for the period of storage prior to purchase by customers. The main participants in the experiment are the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Federal Customs Service, the Federal Accreditation Service and the Russian Post.

As part of the experiment, it is planned to prepare amendments to the acts of the Eurasian Economic Union and the legislation of the Russian Federation on customs regulation.

After the completion of the experiment, the Russian Ministry of Finance will send proposals to the government to extend or terminate the pilot, assess the feasibility of making changes at the level of international treaties and acts regulating customs legal relations of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Due to a malfunction in the operation of customs information systems, Lithuania has suspended the passage of trucks from the Kaliningrad region, according to the Telegram of the Federal Customs Service of Russia.

Trucks are not allowed through and are not issued from 2:00 on April 2. According to the FCS, there was a queue for entry into Lithuania from Russia, as of the evening of April 2, there were 80 heavy trucks in it.

At the end of November, Lithuania stopped letting through Russian trucks that are leased from the actual carrier and do not belong to him, TASS reported, citing the chairman of the public council under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development of the Kaliningrad Region, Leonid Stepanyuk. He suggested that the problem would affect 25-30% of the trucks that are leased from Kaliningrad carriers.

In mid-March, Vilnius decided to intensify inspections of freight trains at the Kybartai railway station, following from the Kaliningrad region to Lithuania - for this, X-ray control will be installed there.

In the summer of 2022, the Lithuanian authorities restricted the rail transit of sanctioned goods to the Kaliningrad region. Russia called this decision illegal and promised to take retaliatory measures. Subsequently, the European Commission clarified the terms of the sanctions, allowing transit by rail, but under the control of Lithuania. In addition, the EC has set limits on the transit of sanctioned goods. In August, the head of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, said that the region had exhausted quotas for some products.

The quota for the transportation of goods through Lithuania to Kaliningrad and back for 2023 is 2.89 million tons, which is almost 7% less than in 2022, Interfax reported.

RBC

/TASS/. The volume of exports of the Perm Territory in 2022 increased by 32% compared to 2021 and amounted to $10.4 billion, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of the region reported.

"The results of foreign trade turnover were summed up in the Perm Territory, which, according to the results of 2022, amounted to almost $11.5 billion. Compared to 2021, the volume of exports increased by 30.7% (+2.7 billion) and amounted to $10.4 billion, imports increased by almost 28% - more than 1 billion," the ministry said.

According to him, starting from 2020, an increase in the volume of export deliveries has been recorded in the Kama region. So, in 2020, regional exporting enterprises shipped their products abroad for $4.4 billion, and in 2021 this figure increased by almost 80% and reached $7.9 billion.

The ministry also noted that in the commodity structure of exports of the Perm Territory for 2022, mineral fertilizers, goods of the fuel and energy complex, the chemical industry, the timber industry, and mechanical engineering prevailed. The products of Perm manufacturers were supplied to 133 countries of the world, including Brazil, China, Kazakhstan and others.

To minimize export losses, the department added, a set of measures to support the federal and regional levels is being implemented in the region. In particular, in the Kama region, the subsidy budget for compensation for the costs of transporting goods abroad has been doubled. In addition, the activities of the Russian Export Center and the Export Support Center are being implemented within the framework of the national project "International Cooperation and Export".

In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin set the country the task of increasing the volume of non-commodity non-energy exports by 2024. In 2021, the Perm Territory ranked 13th in the ranking in terms of exports among the regions of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the share of non-commodity non-energy exports amounted to 68.2% of total exports or $5.42 billion, which is 65.4% more than in 2020.