Ukraine will lose USD 5 billion in trade with Russia before the end of 2014. Ukraine’s Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak announced this during the first international investment conference “A Fresh Look at Ukraine,” RBK Ukraine reports.
"We have already lost about USD 3.5 billion in turnover with Russia, and we will lose USD 5 billion before the end of the year. Primarily, this is from agriculture – foodstuffs, groups 1-24 – and engineering. These are the two main items that we exported to Russia. Everything remaining in trade relations will continue to link us, unfortunately or maybe fortunately..." said Shlapak.
As reported, in October the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade published a draft list of goods that may be excluded from free trade during importation from Russia into Ukraine. This will be a retaliatory measure if Russia restricts trade with Ukraine.
Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced on September 19 that he had signed a decree on imposition of trade tariffs on Ukrainian goods and that these tariffs would go into effect if Ukraine began implementing the provisions of its agreement on free trade with the European Union ahead of schedule.
