"We will not introduce export duties for it will mean a very serious step backward, and it won't give anything," Fradkov told journalists Friday.
Suggestions to introduce an export duty on products of the metals industry were voiced yesterday at parliamentary hearings on state regulation of prices for metal production.
The Russian deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Andrei Sharonov spoke against it. "In the period of decline, we survived only thanks to foreign markets. If we lose foreign markets now, it will be hard to penetrate there again," Sharonov said.
Representatives of metals industry enterprises voiced a similar opinion, saying that the export duty will not lead to reduction of prices on the domestic market, but it may result in the loss of foreign markets.
