Russia Increases Tariffs On Goods Such As Shoes And Clothing In Ukraine

10 days after the entry into force of the agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, the Russian government issued a notice on September 22nd to levy tariffs on Ukraine commodities.

They include meat, dairy products, candy, fruits and cereals, as well as beer, wine and cigarettes.

It also increased tariffs on cars, clothing, shoes and sanitary ware.

The list also includes passenger and cargo shipping, machinery, cosmetics, cloth, furniture and sports equipment.

In the list issued by the government, there are 174 commodity subjects.

Last Friday, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev announced that he had signed a law to impose import duties on Ukraine's exports, but no law was published on that day.

The two digit decline in the amount of foreign capital absorbed has nothing to do with anti-monopoly.

According to the Ministry of commerce data, in July and August, the amount of foreign investment absorbed has dropped by two digits compared to the same period. As for its relationship with the ongoing anti monopoly, Shen Danyang, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it is clear that it has nothing to do with it.

Data show that in 2014 1-8, 15200 newly established enterprises with foreign investment increased by 5% compared with the same period last year, and the actual amount of foreign investment was 78 billion 340 million US dollars (equivalent to 482 billion 520 million yuan), down 1.8% compared to the same period last year (excluding banking, securities and insurance data).

In the month of August, 1951 newly established enterprises with foreign investment increased by 5.2% compared with the same period last year. The actual amount of foreign investment was 7 billion 200 million dollars, down 14% from the same period last year, a slight decrease compared with the decrease in July.

In July and August, the amount of foreign capital absorbed fell two digit year-on-year.

It is indicated that the decrease in foreign investment in July and August is not related to the ongoing anti monopoly. There are three main reasons for the slowdown in import growth:

First, the international commodity prices are sluggish.

Import prices of bulk raw materials such as iron ore and copper continued to decline.

In the first 8 months of this year, China's import price index dropped by 8.1% over the same period last year, the lowest since 2010.

The two is the adjustment of structure, elimination of backward production capacity and other factors, the domestic market for energy, resources and other commodities import demand has weakened, investment and production matching import demand slowdown.

We made a calculation. In the first seven months of this year, the growth rate of imports of capital goods and intermediate goods decreased by 2 and 3.5 percentage points respectively over the same period last year.

Capital goods are mainly investment, and intermediate goods are mainly production.

Three, the pulling effect of exports on imports has weakened, and import demand for processing trade has decreased.

The import of processing trade in the first 8 months of this year was US $321 billion 90 million, a growth rate of 4 percentage points lower than that of the same period last year.

Shen Danyang said that China did not seek a favorable balance but hoped that trade could be balanced. Efforts should be made to expand imports while paying attention to supporting the expansion of exports. Moreover, the general office of the State Council issued this document in May, which required further expansion of imports. Therefore, the Ministry of Commerce will focus on implementing the implementation of the opinions of the general office of the State Council on supporting stable growth of foreign trade, while continuing to stabilize export growth while promoting growth in imports.

Shen Danyang pointed out that at present, the Ministry of commerce should focus on the following three tasks: first, vigorously promote trade facilitation.

In June, the Ministry of Commerce has cancelled the automatic import license of five categories of 81 products, including CD production equipment and automobile products.

At present, customs, commerce and other departments are actively carrying out the "single window" trial of international trade, and actively promote the automatic import license clearance without paper.

Second, we should continue to encourage imports of advanced technology, equipment, key components and domestic scarce resources.

The new edition of this year's catalogue of technology and products to encourage imports has increased 54 advanced technologies such as energy saving, environmental protection, aerospace, clean energy, monitoring and testing equipment. It has encouraged the import of advanced CNC machines, energy saving and environmental protection equipment, monitoring and testing equipment, aerospace and other 47 important equipment and key components, as well as 5 important resource products.

Next, the Ministry of Commerce will also study with financial institutions how to further increase financial support to encourage imports of technology and products.

Third, we should speed up the development of national import trade, promote innovation demonstration zones, support the import innovation demonstration zones such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Ningbo and Suzhou to further improve the functions of ports, speed up institutional innovation, expand trading patterns, and actively promote the advanced experience of the demonstration area in the field of import trade facilitation and import promotion platform construction, so as to form an exemplary effect and drive import growth.

In particular, these pilot areas should demonstrate how to drive the import of consumer products that can meet the needs of the domestic population.

Shen Danyang said that the degree of marketization of China's foreign trade is very high, and the Chinese government mainly plays the role of policy guidance and service promotion.

The expansion of imports depends mainly on market forces. From the import situation this year, the domestic market has strong demand for imported commodities, especially consumer goods, and this demand is still expanding. Therefore, on the one hand, we encourage domestic enterprises to actively import marketable goods according to market demand, and on the other hand, those countries and foreign enterprises that intend to expand exports to China suggest that they should go to China to hold exhibitions and other trade promotion activities, and expand their exports to China.