Ukrainian president vetoes ferrous scrap export duty

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has reportedly declined to sign a bill that would have created an export duty of from €10 to €30 per metric ton on ferrous scrap leaving the nation.

According to an online report from the Interfax news agency, the Ukrainian president “vetoed a bill amending Article 13 of the law on foreign economic activities to curb [a perceived] shortage of ferrous scrap metal on the domestic market.” Poroshenko instead “returned it to parliament,” saying, the increase of export duties on ferrous scrap “does not meet the provisions of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement ratified on September 16, 2014.”

The duty proposed by Ukraine’s parliament was to have been put into effect for three years. Poroshenko reportedly indicated that he may well be in favor of a duty applied with a shorter term. “Poroshenko [has] proposed that the export duty on ferrous scrap [should be] temporarily set at €30 per tonne for one calendar year.”