Govt to support prolongation of zero export duty for grain

ST. PETERSBURG, Apr 12 (PRIME) -- The government will support a proposal of the Agriculture Ministry to prolong a zero duty on grain exports for at least two year keeping the mechanism for emergency cases, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters on Thursday.

“We may support it for even more than two years. We have already made a principal decision,” he said, adding that predictability is an important thing so the government may support prolongation for even five years.

“Generally speaking, we don’t plan to introduce a high duty, we simply don’t want to terminate the instrument in case any emergency happens. Though we don’t foresee any,” he said.

He also said that the recent worsening of the situation in Syria is unlikely to hurt exports of Russian grain to the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea as companies sign contracts a season in advance. Russia has already delivered the bulk of grain harvested in the previous season, he said.

The duty, initially imposed in 2015, was changed several times after the introduction, and was reduced to zero on September 23, 2017. On Tuesday, Russian Grain Union’s President Arkady Zlochevsky sent a request to the Agriculture Ministry asking it to abolish the duty, but the ministry said it wanted to keep the duty for two more years.

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