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President Victor Yushchenko has approved the introduction of a temporary surcharge of 13% on the import duty on several products.

The presidential press service announced this in a statement.

Yushchenko signed the relevant law adopted by the parliament, which is entitled "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine with the Aim of Improving the State of Ukraine's Balance of Payments in Connection with the Global Financial Crisis."

At the same time, Yushchenko said that certain provisions of the law violated the Constitution and did not fully take account of his proposed changes.

In particular, the law grants the Cabinet of Ministers the right to make decisions on extending the temporary surcharge to the existing rates of import duty on certain products by adopting the relevant Cabinet of Ministers resolutions.

Yuschenko said that this violated the Constitution, which stipulates that taxes and duties are to be set exclusively through adoption of laws.

Yuschenko intends to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the law's provision that grants this right to the Cabinet of Ministers.

The press service stressed that Yushchenko signed this law because of the negative state of Ukraine's balance of payments and the significant fall in industrial output in the past few months.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the parliament introduced a temporary surcharge of 13% on the import duty on several products on February 5.

The parliament introduced a temporary additional surcharge of 13% on all imported goods, excluding critical goods, in late December 2008. Yuschenko vetoed the relevant law in early 2009.