European Union’s flags flutter at half mast in reminiscence of late European Parliament President David Sassoli, in entrance of European Fee constructing, in Brussels, Belgium January 11, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman
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BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) – The European Union has authorised new sanctions towards Belarus for its supporting position in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, successfully banning about 70% of all imports from that nation, the EU stated on Wednesday.
The contemporary sanctions, which spare for now Belarusian banks, come after Minsk allowed Russian troops to maneuver into Ukraine from its territory, in addition to modified its structure to permit everlasting deployment of Russian forces and nuclear weapons on its soil.
The measures embody contemporary financial sanctions and new listings of twenty-two high-ranking members of the Belarusian navy concerned within the aggression towards Ukraine.
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The financial sanctions hit each Belarus’ exports to the EU, and EU exports of equipment to Belarus.
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The import ban considerably expands earlier sanctions, and can now cowl almost 70% of Belarus export to the EU, which accounted for five.9 billion euros final 12 months, an EU official stated. learn extra
Among the many sectors hit are wooden, timber, metal and iron, which weren’t lined by earlier sanctions, and cumulatively symbolize almost 40% of all Belarusian exports to the EU. Different sectors affected by the EU import ban are cement, rubber and fuels.
The brand new sanctions additionally shut loopholes and finish carve-outs on present sanctions on Belarus export of potash, a fertilizer fabricated from potassium and a key buying and selling product. To this point sanctions had banned solely 20% of that export, whereas the brand new measures will utterly ban its commerce, EU officers stated.
The measures will embody contracts signed earlier than their adoption, and never simply new contracts as in earlier rounds of sanctions. Corporations may have three months to shut open contracts.
Dangers that banned merchandise could also be exported through Russia or different third international locations could be addressed by customs authorities, EU officers stated.
Below the brand new sanctions, the EU will even cease exporting to Belarus a protracted record of equipment that may very well be used for navy functions, along with merchandise already banned. Among the many new sanctioned merchandise are superior applied sciences, together with computer systems, electronics, telecoms, sensors and lasers.
In contrast to Russian lenders, Belarusian banks haven’t been excluded but from the SWIFT worldwide funds system, however one EU official stated that that “will come”.
The contemporary measures come on high of these already imposed by the EU after President Alexander Lukashenko crushed protests following elections in August 2020.
Lukashenko himself is already topic to EU sanctions.
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Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; further reporting by John Chalmers; enhancing by Tomasz Janowski, Hugh Lawson, Bernadette Baum and Sandra Maler
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