Customs duties will be introduced on the import of meat and dairy products and cement from Ukraine. The Ministry of Economy drafted a Government decision on the introduction of customs duties in the trade regime with the CIS states, valid until December 31, 2016, IPN reports.

According to the Ministry, the decision was drafted following requests from dairy and meat producers to take measures to protect the sector in connection with the growth in the quantity and assortment of products made in Ukraine on the home market. The decision is also based on customs statistics, which show that the imports of dairy rose by 15%, and on the provisions of the CIS Free Trade Agreement.

Under the annex to the document, the meat products, almost all the dairy products and the cement will be excluded from the free trade with Ukraine and will be subject to import duties.

Recently, Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac had a meeting with Ukraine’s Ambassador in Chisinau Ivan Gnatyshin, where he reiterated the Moldovan side’s readiness to organize a meeting of the co-chairpersons of the intergovernmental Moldovan-Ukrainian commission to discuss all the aspects of the bilateral trade.

Representatives of agricultural producers recently reiterated their concern about the fact that the authorities do not take measures to protect the domestic market from the larger imports of meat and dairy products from Ukraine, warning that the national producers are affected.