8th August 2014

Russia retaliates, bans selected EU imports

As a response to the stage 3 economic sanctions imposed by the EU, Russia announced last week, that import of selected agriculture goods from the EU will be banned for a period of up to one year. The list of the specific goods, published later last week, includes meat and meat products, milk and diary products, poultry, fish and others. Experts agree, that the EU agriculture will suffer from the retaliation sanctions, but since EU agricultural exports to Russia are only relatively modest, the EU economy should not be hit too hard. However, some economies could be hit harder than others. Finland´s Prime Minister Alexander Stubb stated that Finland will surely be hit quite seemingly, since Russia is Finland´s third trade partner. He said, however, that the employment of sanctions was justified. He indicated also that Finland expects solidarity from the EU partners, if it gets hit disproportionately, though.

Russia, which is being punished for the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol and the continuing destabilization of Ukraine, threatened to further widen its sanctions on EU (and also US, Canadian, Australian and Norwegian) companies by banning flights through Russian airspace for their airlines. This would mean longer routes, and thus longer flights and more fuel burnt. Importantly though, it would also hit Russian Aeroflot, which receives foreign payments for using Russian airspace.

For more, click here and here.

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic