Belarus under global pressure after it forced a Ryanair plane carrying an opposition journalist to land in Minsk, is to introduce individual licensing regime for the import of a range of Ukrainian goods, a Ukrainian deputy minister said on Friday.
Following the forced landing of the flight from Greece to Lithuania at the weekend and the arrest of a dissident Belarusian journalist on board, Ukraine this week banned flights to and from Belarus. In response, Belarus is to introduce a “discriminatory” trade barriers against a range of goods from Ukraine.
Deputy economy minister Taras Kachka said on Facebook new six-month licences would be required for the import of Ukrainian goods which would come into force in 10 days.
They would apply, among other things, to confectionery, beer, chipboard, wallpaper, toilet paper, packaging, bricks, ceramic tiles, agricultural machinery, washing machines and furniture.
“Such actions are unjustified and discriminatory. Individual licensing regime means manual control of the import of Ukrainian products to Belarus,” he said.
Kachka said the government was talking to producers to try to reduce the negative effects of the licences.
As was earlier reported, Ukrainian energy analysts said Minsk also suspended fuel supplies to Ukraine. The energy ministry said it could not confirm this but added that the country had sufficient petrol reserves.
It's worth noting that on Wednesday, Ukraine’s state energy regulatory authority ruled to ban electricity imports from Belarus and its closest ally, Russia, as they are not members of the Energy Community (of South East Europe). Since Soviet times, Ukraine has been connected to the energy systems of neighbouring states and at the beginning of this year imported energy due to a lack of domestic power generation.