On January 8, 2021, Ukraine re-entered a national lockdown which will last till January 25, 2021.
The day before, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine published amendments to its Resolution #1236 introducing quarantine regulation. Following several meetings and consultations of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine (the Chamber) with the Leadership of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture, the Government partially considered business proposals on lifting certain lockdown restrictions.
According to the introduced amendments, the list of businesses allowed to operate under the lockdown was extended with the sale of household detergents, printed media as well as the functioning of reusable waste collection points. The last one is important in terms of ensuring food & beverage industry with packaging materials.
At the same time, other lockdown restrictions remained unchanged, which is explained by MoH position. Please follow the link to get familiar with respective MoH clarification regarding offline sales (incl. tobacco products). The business community is grateful for the clarification, which defused several issues, although it has not solved all the problems.
For example, unjustified ban on offline sales of non-food products in food supermarkets and drogerie, which stay open during the lockdown, is still in place. Following that, all non-food products except of certain categories (hygiene products and household detergents, medicines and medical devices, veterinary products and feeds, seeds and crop protection materials, telecom devices, print media) are to be sold only in a delivery format. The Chamber repeatedly addressed the Government with the message that the mentioned elimination of offline sales assortment doesn’t correspond with measures to contain COVID-19.
The Chamber will continue delivering this message in communication with responsible stakeholders.
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