FIEO says sanctions on Russia not to impact India's export of agriculture, pharma and petroleum products

Representative Image

Amid concerns raised by the Indian manufacturers and exporters over the fresh sanctions imposed on Russia, the Commerce Ministry-controlled Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has advised 25 export promotion councils under its purview not to worry about exports of agriculture, pharmaceutical and petroleum products.

The communication of FIEO to its member export promotion councils on February 27 assumes significance against the backdrop of sanctions imposed on Russia by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department.

OFAC, which administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions in support of the US national security and foreign policy objectives, has been announcing a series of sanctions over the last few days on Russian individuals and entities in response to Russia’s assault on Ukraine.

FIEO has asked its member export promotion councils to convey to the members the exemptions and guidelines that the OFAC has specified and the eight general licences authorising certain transactions.

“Our exports of agriculture, pharma and petroleum products to Russia will not be subjected to sanctions in view of the above guidelines,” the FIEO top brass informed its member export promotion councils.

The Commerce Ministry’s export organisations body told its members that “specifically, OFAC issued eight general licences authorising certain transactions related to international organisations and entities, agricultural and medical commodities and the COVID-19 pandemic, overflight and emergency landings, energy, dealings in certain debt or equity, derivative contracts, the wind-down of transactions involving certain blocked persons, and the rejection of transactions involving certain blocked persons.”

Further, FIEO said OFAC has issued several general licences to ensure that sanctions and prohibitions on Russia have an impact on the intended targets and to minimise unintended consequences on third parties.

“In particular, payments for energy are from production to consumption. The sanctions and licence package has been constructed to account for the challenges high energy prices pose to average citizens and doesn’t prevent banks from processing payments for them,” said FIEO in its communique.