The Russian government has approved a new scheme of calculating from next year a raw sugar import tariff pegged to New York futures prices, its website www.government.ru said on Friday. Russia will continue setting the tariff each month using New York prices as a guide. But from 2005 the Economy Ministry will calculate the average price for three preceding months before the 15th of each month instead of the average for only one month as it did in 2004.
The tariff pegged to the average three-month price will be set for the following month.
On Thursday, the ministry said it had applied the new scheme to set the January tariff of $164 per tonne. The tariff is equal to December's, which was based on the old scheme.
A government resolution on sugar imports extends indefinitely import tariffs applied to other types of sugar in 2004, the website said.
Last year white sugar imports were liable to a tariff of $340 per tonne. A tariff of $250 per tonne was applied in the first half of the year to raw beet sugar imports, falling to $270 tonnes in the second half.
Russian raw cane sugar imports declined to 2.08 million tonnes in the first 10 months of this year from 3.33 million in the same period of 2003 after Moscow imposed the floating tariff from 2004.
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