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Russia refuses to scrap export duty on petroleum products, Belarusian vice premier says

Russia refuses to scarp its customs duty on deliveries of petroleum products to Belarus, Andrey Kabyakow, deputy prime minister of Belarus, said in Moscow on February 26 following a meeting of the Customs Union’s Commission, BelaPAN said. 

The Belarusian delegation did not raise the issue of oil deliveries at the Commission’s meeting, Mr. Kabyakow said, noting that the deliveries are governed by an agreement that was signed at the end of January. “But the agreement doesn’t suit the Belarusian side,” Belarus’ government-owned news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

According to Mr. Kabyakow, the export duty applied by Russia to deliveries of petroleum products to Belarus had been discussed at the Commission’s meeting. Russia has no legal framework to apply it and the delegations had an “emotional talk” about the matter, he noted.

Russia insists that the duty is legitimate, Mr. Kabyakow said. “We outlined the sides’ positions in the outcome document of the meeting and we hope that Russia will take steps to meet its international commitments,” he said. “But there is no understanding on the part of the Russian partners.”