The Ukrainian economy ministry is set to probe exports of its hard candy into Belarus, which domestic manufacturers claim is being discriminated against, reported Ukraine's media.

Ukraine's leading sweet manufacturer Roshen Confectionery Corporation filed a complaint about the alleged discrimination, according to the report.

A special commission under the country's Council of Ministers established that the complaint was well-grounded and ordered the probe.

This past August, Belarus introduced an anti-dumping duty on imports of Ukrainian hard candy for a period of three years. The duty was set at 11.76 percent of the customs value for candies that do not contain cacao and 23.9 percent for candies that contain it.

Stanislav Myronenko, director of the Ukrkonditer group uniting 28 sweets manufacturers, told BelaPAN following the introduction of the duty that the move by Belarus was "not a disaster" for the Ukrainian industry.

He said that Ukrainian exports of hard candy into Belarus were insignificant, noting that supplies of sweets, including pastry, amounted to 9,000 tons, or five percent of all Ukrainian exports of sweets, in 2007.

"But still, the introduction of the duty was not the happiest news for us," Mr. Myronenko said. "It means that the sale market has been narrowed slightly."

//BelaPAN

01.12 // 15:11 //

Source: naviny.by