Russia 111206 Basic Political Developments
Russia to reduce power equipment import duties under WTO obligations
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Russia to reduce power equipment import duties under WTO obligationshttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=292741 MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Russia will reduce import duties on certain types of power equipment in 2013-2015 as part of its obligations upon joining the World Trade Organization. The country will begin lowering duties on gas turbines with capacity of 20 MW to 50 MW in 2013, and on turbines with capacity up to 20 MW in 2014, according to a document on Russia's obligations concerning access to goods markets upon accession to the WTO, of which Interfax has obtained a copy. Duties on gas turbines with capacity over 50 MW will not be lowered. Furthermore, the cap rates for all types of gas turbines upon accession to the WTO, which is expected to take place by the middle of 2012, will exceed the current duties.
Duties on hydraulic turbines will begin to be lowered in 2013, and will reach the minimum of 13% in 2014 for all categories.
The import duty on steam turbines will not be lowered. Moreover, Russia reserves the right to raise it from the current 15% to 20% in the period to 2016, though after 2016 it is not supposed to exceed 15%. Russia also reserves the right to impose a 5% duty on turbine generators and wind generators, which are currently not subject to import duties. Russia will begin lowering duties in 2013 on a range of transformer equipment, which will reach their minimum level in 2016-2017.
In many cases, import duties on transformers will be slashed by approximately half, though the ceiling for import duties on transformers upon accession to the WTO in most cases does not differ from the current rates.
Import duties on boiler equipment will begin to be reduced in 2015 and reach their minimum in 2016. There will be an exception for water boilers with superheaters, the duty on which is currently zero, but after accession to the WTO can be up to 5%.
Russia's leading manufacturers of turbine equipment are OJSC Power Machines (steam, gas, hydraulic), OJSC Saturn Gas Turbines, OJSC Tyazhmash (hydraulic), the Renova Group's CJSC Ural Turbine Plant (steam) and CJSC Neva Plant (steam). The country's biggest producer of boiler equipment is OJSC EMAlyans. The largest producers of transformers are LLC Togliatti Transformer and OJSC Sverdlovsk Current Transformer Plant. The biggest importers of power equipment are Siemens, Alstom, General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The proportion of imported primary equipment at Russian power plants is now about 80%. It was during debates over imports of power equipment that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made his harshest statements on issues concerning the WTO in the past year. At a meeting in April, he criticized Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach, who said duties on power equipment could not be raised due to obligations within the context of WTO negotiations. "We should fulfill obligations, bear certain expenses without getting any of the advantages of membership which does not exist. As soon as we start fulfilling WTO obligations without being a member they, our partners, will lose any wish to adopt us. Why the hell should they admit us, if we already observe everything," Putin said. "Why are we constantly returning to this? We will introduce all the rules and restrictions after full accession. Before that we have our hands free. We have said it a thousand times but you return us back there again," he said in reaction to Klepach's remark that Russia has its hands tied as far as duties are concerned given its upcoming accession to WTO, and spoke of the need for antidumping measures in power industry equipment manufacturing. vp ml of (Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru) MICEX-RTS to liberalize forex market http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111206103209.shtml RBC, 06.12.2011, Moscow 10:32:09.The merged MICEX-RTS stock exchange intends to provide direct access to foreign exchange trading to companies by December 2012, RBC Daily reported today. Companies are currently required to trade on the forex market via banks. Under the law on organized trading passed in November, companies' treasuries will be allowed to carry out transactions via MICEX-RTS' authorized bank, the National Clearing Center, starting December 1, 2012. Directory: gifiles -> attach attach -> British Forces – Akrioti, Greece Griffin Fighter Squadron (84 Squadron raf) MoD announced possible Typhoon and Tornado arrivals to the base France attach -> Russia 110204 Basic Political Developments attach -> Unclassified//for official use only attach -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution Download 289.68 Kb. Share with your friends:
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