There is still no evidence that the economic part of the EU-Ukraine association agreement has been implemented, the Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said during a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
“For now we do not have evidence of some sort of regulatory or legislative act was issued that explicitly or implicitly could have enacted these norms. But since there’s a great deal of regulatory and legislative acts (this might not only be acts of the government or the Rada), we also have to analyze agency orders. Therefore we will monitor the situation very closely, and will, of course, react to it immediately, but for now, we don’t know of any such instances,” he said
The working group to monitor Ukraine’s potential application – explicitly or not – of temporary measures, was formed under a government resolution. “We are currently organizing the collection of information. This includes Russia’s Interior Ministry, our embassy in Ukraine. It includes the trade representation,” Ulyukayev said.
Medvedev pointed out that he signed a resolution authorizing imposition of duties under certain terms if Ukraine begins implementation of the economic portion of the free trade zone agreement with the European Union.
If Russia determines that implementation has begun, it will introduce a most-favored trade regime with Ukraine over the course of 10 days, meaning a cancellation of discounts and a start to collection of the relevant import duties.
Medvedev urged the Economic Development Ministry to continue monitoring the situation. “The control mechanism, contained in the government resolution must operate. I would point out that this is not just a legal unification that takes the form of publication of one or another set of normative acts or issuance of ministerial documents, but rather an actual application of these rules,” Medvedev said.
“For that reason, on this entire matter, you and the customs service, as well as other organizations that are connected in one way or another with these regimes, must monitor the situation. It is my understanding that representatives of those services are included in the controlling body,” Medvedev said.
Ulyukayev said that the work is being carried out jointly with colleagues from the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, Rosselkhoznadzor and the Federal Customs Service.
