Sweden and other EU Member States push for increased import tariffs on Russian goods
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Together with his ministerial counterparts in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dousa has written a letter to the European Commission proposing increased import tariffs on Russian goods.
“We need to do more to support Ukraine and place economic pressure on Russia. The hope is that together, we can obstruct Russian exports to the EU and weaken the Russian economy. Along with like-minded countries, Sweden is therefore pushing for the European Commission to propose import tariffs across the board on goods from Russia,” says Mr Dousa.
In their letter, the group of ministers stress that the EU needs to do more to support Ukraine and argues that a proposal on import tariffs would damage Russian exports to the EU and reduce financing for Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have already imposed high import tariffs on Russian goods. In the view of the Government, Sweden and the EU can and should do more to restrict Russia’s revenues from trade with the EU.
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EU trade with Russia
EU imports from Russia totalled EUR 42 billion in 2023. That is more than half of the total economic support given to Ukraine by the EU since the start of the full-scale invasion. Like-minded countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand have introduced tariffs of 35 per cent across the board, while the United States and the United Kingdom have introduced sectoral tariffs.
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