UPDATE: Poroshenko inks law on Ukraine’s anti-Moscow counter-sanctions

(Rewrites headline, lede, adds details in second, third paragraphs)

KIEV, Dec 29 (PRIME) -- Ukraine’s President Pyotr Poroshenko has signed a law that allows the government to impose economic sanctions on Russia in retaliation for Moscow’s food import ban and a decision to suspend a free-trade zone deal with the country, the government said in a statement Tuesday.

“(The bill) was returned with a signature of the president on December 29, 2015,” the statement read.

Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Kiev is ready to lift its anti-Russian sanctions if Moscow lifts its food import ban and will not suspend a CIS free-trade deal with the country.

“If Russia is ready to reject its trade embargo, if Russia is ready to fulfill a free-trade zone agreement with Ukraine, we are also ready for that,” he said in a news conference.

Russia imposed import duties and a food import ban on Ukraine from 2016 saying it has to protect its market from imports of goods from third countries under the guise of Ukrainian goods because of Kiev’s free-trade deal with the E.U.

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