Japan govt introduces bill to add sanctions on Russia

Jiji Press

17:20 JST, April 6, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government Tuesday introduced a bill to scrap preferential tariff rates for imports of seafood and wood from Russia as part of its additional sanctions for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The government adopted the bill to revise the law on temporary measures concerning customs and submitted it to the Diet.

If the revised law is enacted, the tariff rate would rise to 6% from 4% for crabs, to 5% from 3.5% for salmon and salmon roe and to 8% from 4.8% for rasped pinewood.

The enactment would boost Russia’s annual tariff costs by a total of ¥3.9 billion.

Meanwhile, there would be no change to the duty-free status for imports of liquefied natural gas and palladium from Russia.

The government also introduced a bill to close sanctions loopholes by strengthening the regulation of crypto assets.

The bill to revise the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law is aimed at obligating crypto asset exchange service providers to confirm that individuals or groups to which crypto assets are transferred are not subject to Japan’s sanctions against Russia.