OREANDA-NEWS  The Japanese government on Friday extended the decision to deprive the Russian Federation of the status of the most favored nation in trade due to the situation around Ukraine. This was reported by the Kyodo news agency. The cancellation of the preferential regime was introduced by the Japanese side in March last year for a year. The deadline for the execution of the decision expired on March 31 and was extended for another 12 months due to the start of the new financial year on April 1. Imports from countries that are not included in the list of most-favored-nation countries are taxed at the basic tariff rate. In this regard, earlier duties on the import of wood from Russia were increased from 4.8 to 8%, salmon and caviar from 3.5 to 5%, crab from 4 to 6%.

At the same time, with regard to energy resources, such as liquefied natural gas, oil and coal, which account for most of Japanese imports from the Russian Federation, tariff rates have not increased and remain zero.

The trade turnover between Japan and Russia in calendar year 2022 increased by 6.2%, to 2.56 trillion yen (about $19.96 billion). The main reason for the growth was the increase in world energy prices. Thus, the volume of imports from Russia immediately increased by 26.2%, to 1.95 trillion yen (about $ 15.2 billion). At the same time, more than 68% of the specified amount is accounted for by energy carriers. Japanese exports to Russia decreased by 29.8%, to 605 billion yen (about $4.7 billion).

The most favored nation regime - one of the fundamental principles of the World Trade Organization - assumes that the contracting Parties undertake to provide each other with the same favorable conditions in the field of economic and trade relations as any third State. This applies, in particular, to customs privileges.