Seven EU states push for tariffs on Russian goods

Seven EU member states want the European Commission to impose tariffs on goods from Russia.

Together with his counterparts from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Benjamin Dousa, has submitted a joint letter to the Commission calling for higher tariffs on Russian imports, Caliber.Az reports, citing the Government Offices of Sweden.

“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,” Dousa noted.

In the letter, the ministers underline the need for the EU to enhance its support for Ukraine and argue that new tariff measures would restrict Russian exports to the bloc and reduce the Kremlin’s ability to finance its full-scale invasion.

They also note that the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have already imposed significant import tariffs on Russian goods, stressing that Sweden and the EU should likewise strengthen efforts to curb Russia’s trade revenues.

Russia-EU trade relations have been steadily shrinking since 2022, when Brussels introduced multiple sanction packages targeting Russian energy, steel, coal and dual-use goods.

Although the EU has largely banned imports of oil and coal, several non-sanctioned categories — including certain metals, chemicals and industrial inputs — have remained in circulation, leaving Moscow with several billion euros in annual export revenue.

Several Western partners, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have already adopted broad tariff regimes on Russian products to limit the Kremlin’s access to hard currency.

By Jeyhun Aghazada