The Ministry of economic development announces plans to cut duties on agricultural products not produced in Russia. As stated by the Deputy Minister Alexey Likhachev, duties will be reduced at the request of Iran.
According to Likhachev, duties will be reduced not only for Iran but for other countries. In particular, the government has already drafted exempting from anti-Turkish sanctions, certain commercial contracts. It happened on applications of several hundred companies, including Sberbank.
Despite the aggressive rhetoric of governments toward Turkey and the sharp deterioration of relations with the West, economic interests still come first. Sanctions against Turkey, hurt the interests of too many players in the regional market, and their cancellation in respect of some companies proves the correctness of the thesis about the subordination of policy to the economy. Fee reductions also perfectly fits into this logic. As a result of the introduction of mutual sanctions, trade between Russia and the EU have already dropped by half: from 450 billion euros to 235 billion euros. Given that it is still ongoing destruction in the country got sanctions products, it is not surprising the fact of reduction of duties with the purpose to compensate for the loss in food imports. That’s why so actively there are negotiations about deliveries to Russia of Indian and Ceylon meat fruit. Indeed, despite the increase of domestic agricultural products, which amounted in the year 2015 about 8%, its most profitable part is directed to export. The Minister of agriculture Tkachev has even suggested that this year Russia will be able to reclaim the position of largest exporter of wheat in the world.
All this happens against the background of an almost twofold decrease of food imports, which will inevitably lead to a further increase in food prices. In such circumstances, the government just forced to circumvent established sanctions – otherwise a social explosion may occur much earlier. And that’s why won’t happen expect the supporters of the government in the recovery of agriculture: the further expansion of grain exports and a simultaneous decline of trade turnover with main trade partner countries do not tally too well with each other.
