Summed up

  • 2000-01-06
NO DOUBLE TAXES: The Estonian-U.S. agreement on preventing double
taxation came in force on Jan.1. In addition to preventing double
taxation, the agreement aims to combat tax evasion. The agreement was
signed in Washington on Jan.15, 1998 by President Lennart Meri and
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert E. Rubin. Parliament ratified
the agreement in 1998 as did the U.S. Senate in November 1999.
President Clinton signed it on Dec.28.

NEW YEAR BRINGS TARIFFS: Effective Jan. 1, Estonia has established
customs tariffs on goods from countries with whom Estonia does not
have free trade agreements. Estonia's parliament agreed on the
tariffs in November. All goods except those specifically left out
with agreements are taxed. This mainly concerns grain imports from
Russia and pork and chicken imports from U.S. and Canada and should
hike the prices of those foodstuffs in Estonian stores. It does not
concern the Baltic states or European Union countries. Import of
foodstuffs from third countries forms around one third of total food
product imports in Estonia. About 90 million kroons ($5,844,155)
should be collected by this year's state budget with the new tax.

ESTONIA'S SALARIES RISE: The minimum monthly salary in Estonia stands
at 1,400 kroons from Jan. 1, while the minimum hourly wage reaches
8.25 kroons. Previously the minimum hourly wages were 7.35 kroons and
the minimum monthly wages 1,250 kroons. The hike of minimum wages
also raises social insurance benefits. The government, employers and
trade unions also agreed on hiking the tax-free minimum to 800 kroons
a month and 9.600 kroons a year. Companies no longer have to pay
income tax on invested profits. This initially leaves a gap of 1.4
billion kroons in the budget, as compared to last year, but the
positive effects of the law should bring an additional 200 million
kroons into the budget in the first half of the year.

SAMPO OFFERS NEW SERVICE IN LITHUANIA: Sampo Draudimas Co.will begin
non-life insurance in Lithuania. The permit to be engaged in non-life
insurance practice was issued to the Finnish company on Nov. 21,
while the new subsidiary was registered on Dec. 29 of this year.
Darius Kamuntavicius was appointed director general of the Sampo
Draudimas Co.At the beginning, the Sampo Draudimas Co. will provide
insurance services to Lithuanian legal entities. Sampo has
subsidiaries in all three Baltic states, Central European countries
and its representative offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

WOOD BIGGEST EXPORT TO EU: In the first 10 months Latvia has exported
wood mostly to the European Union states, which account for 54.9
percent of Latvia's total volume of export to EU, according to the
Central Statistics Department. The data show that within the period,
textile production was also important, totaling 19.5 percent of
export to these states, various manufactured commodities - 7.3
percent, metals and ironware - 6.3 percent, machines, mechanisms and
electrical appliances - 2.7 percent. Latvia's export of goods and
services to the EU states totaled 527,746,000 lats ($906,780) in 10
months.

KLAIPEDA NAFTA SHIPMENTS UP: The joint stock oil company Klaipedos
Nafta loaded 289,038 tons of oil products last December, with 276,000
tons accounting for fuel oil and 12,000 for diesel fuel. According to
a Klaipedos Nafta Co. spokeswoman, in December 1998 the company
transshipped 265,205 tons of oil products, with the total 1998
volumes standing at 2.223 million tons. Last year volumes of loading
various oil products reached a 3.971 million ton limit. The company's
specialists predict that in 2000 the company will transship around 6
million tons of oil, following nearly 35,000 tons of oil products
transshipped in the first three days of 2000.

PORT OF TALLINN THROUGHPUT UP 23. 5 PERCENT: Estonia's largest port,
Tallinna Sadam reported a 23.5 percent growth in the throughput last
year to 26.4 million tons on account of Russian oil transit. This
compares to a 15 percent growth in 1998 to 21.4 million tons, 17
million tons in 1997 and 14 million tons in 1996. The 1999 growth was
bigger than expected, because earlier in the year the port predicted
only 5 percent growth. The share of liquid cargo in the throughput
grew to 14.5 tons of 55 percent of the total. This was 30.7 percent
more than in 1998. As the railway company Eesti Raudtee boosted
tariffs this year, the share of liquid cargo may fall in January. The
number of passengers' services by the port grew by 9.7 percent to
5.96 million, compared to 5.4 million in 1998, 4.8 million in 1997
and 4.3 million in 1996. Most of the passengers, or 4.6 million, used
the Tallinn-Helsinki link. The number of passenger ships visiting the
Port of Tallinn has grown by 29.8 percent and the number of cargo
ships by 6.2 percent.