The UK has announced new sanctions on Russian goods including vodka, as well as a ban on exports of luxury products including vehicles, fashion and art.
In steps announced by the department for international trade, Britain will deny preferential “most favoured nation” tariffs to hundreds of imports from Russian and Belarus, in response to Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Vodka is the most prominent item on a list of imports worth a total of £900m annually which will now face a punitive additional 35 per cent levy. Also on the list are products like steel, fertiliser, cement, cereal crops and furs.
The measure removes the benefits of World Trade Organisation membership for the administrations in Moscow and Minsk.
Meanwhile, the UK has joined G7 allies in imposing a ban on all high-end luxury good exports to Russia, including iconic cars like Rolls Royce and Bentleys, couture clothes and fine art, with the intention of depriving oligarchs close to Putin of the glitzy lifestyles they enjoy.
And the government announced it will no longer issue any new guarantees, loans and insurance for exports to Russia and Belarus. Without government export credit support, any financial backing from the private sector to the region is virtually impossible.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the new tariffs will “further isolate the Russian economy from global trade”, and in addition to earlier measures put “maximum economic pressure” on Putin and his cronies.
International trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with our international partners in our determination to punish Putin for his barbaric actions in Ukraine, and we will continue our work to starve his regime of the funds that enable him to carry them out.
“The World Trade Organization is founded on respect for the rule of law, which Putin has shown he holds in contempt. By depriving his government of key benefits of WTO membership, we are denying him further resource for his invasion.”
Shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds responded: “For weeks, Labour has been calling for tougher sanctions including a ban on luxury goods, so it is a positive step that ministers have listened and announced this, though it should have not taken this long.
“Urgent sanctions have been needed so that Putin and his inner circle cannot live a Mayfair lifestyle in Moscow whilst committing atrocities in Ukraine.
“The government now needs to ensure that the export ban has no loopholes so it has maximum impact.”
