Foreign Ministry: Belarus hopes Russia will abolish oil duty

Belarus hopes Russia will abolish the oil duty in the near future, Anton Kudasov, a deputy director of the foreign economic activity department – chief of the foreign trade policy department of Belarus’ Foreign Ministry, told a press conference discussing “Belarus on the way to the WTO: accession problems and perspectives” in Minsk on January 21.

According to him, market openness in the Union State and EurAsEC provides for duty-free trade between the member states. However, last year Russia imposed a duty on oil sold to Belarus.

“In terms of foreign trade policy we consider this step as survival of times past and believe we will find the way to come back to free trade including trade in oil,” Anton Kudasov said.