Ukraine Parliament Approves Tit-For-Tat Russian Trade Embargo Thursday Dec 24,2015

 

Ukraine's Parliament voted on Thursday Dec 24,2015 to give the government the right to impose a trade embargo against Russia, which said last week that it would suspend a free trade zone with Ukraine from Jan. 1.

The law, supported by 291 of parliament's 420 lawmakers, will come into force when it has been signed by the president

Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told parliament before Thursday's vote that Ukraine proposed to introduce similar restrictions from January.

"We will protect the internal market of Ukraine," he said. "Russia will receive a response from the Ukrainian government in the form of trade embargo and mirror sanctions against Russian products."


Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko said last week he regretted Russia's decision to end preferential trade with Ukraine but was "ready to pay the price" for the EU trade accord, which would be fully implemented on Jan. 1