September 11 2002, 14:56 APK-Inform

Ukraine will protect its sugarbeet seeds market

People's Deputies of Ukraine L. Svatkov, O. Yukhnovsky and A. Oleksiyenko have prepared a draft law which stipulates introduction of amendments into the law of Ukraine "About Customs Tariffs" in the part concerning rate of sugarbeet seeds import duty. The bill proposes introduction of sugarbeet seeds import duty in the amount of EUR 22 per kilogramme instead of currently effective rate in the amount of 70 percent of customs value of a seeds weight unit.

The need to adopt such an amendment arose from the necessity to protect domestic seeds producers from expansion of foreign seed companies and deliberate underrating by seed importers the customs value of imported seeds in order to reduce the sums of customs duties payable.

While in 1999 just 194 tonnes of sugarbeet seeds were imported to Ukraine, in 2000 the import was as much as 1,520 tonnes, which equalled to about 34 percent of the whole domestic seed demand. It was not a rare case when customs value of the imported seeds was estimated at $0.1 per kilogramme, but then the seeds were sold in domestic market at $50-60 per kilogram. The aim of the bill is to put an end to such and similar abuses.

Besides all, the authors believe that restrictions of sugarbeet seeds imports will help to stop the spread of such a dangerous sugarbeet root disease as rhizomania, which was first registered in the areas of planting imported seeds.