The UK government announced further trade sanctions against Russia on Thursday, expanding the list of products facing import bans and increasing tariffs on a number of others.
The new sanctions will include import bans on silver, wood products and high-end products from Russia, including caviar, International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in announcing the sanctions.
The United Kingdom will also increase tariffs by 35 percentage on around £130 million (€157.3 million/$171 million) worth of products from Russia and Belarus, including diamonds and rubber.
The move follows the latest sanctions from the EU, which banned imports of caviar and crustaceans from Russia but allowed major whitefish species escape the trade ban.
The United Kingdom has already increased tariffs on goods from Russia and Belarus.
A previous round of sanctions initially included a 35percent increase on imports of Russian whitefish, but the government has since backtracked, taking whitefish off the list.
Instead, officials said they still intend to introduce additional duties on imports of fish from Russia and Belarus but first must review how the import tariff might impact the UK seafood sector.
"This measure will follow, subject to further work on the specific implications for the sector. The overall scope of products subject to additional duties will remain under review," officials said at the time.
With the new measures announced on Thursday, the UK will now be imposing import tariffs and bans on over £1 billion (€1.2 billion/$1.3 billion) of Russian goods.
"We are taking every opportunity we can to ratchet the pressure to isolate the Russian economy and these further measures will tighten the screws, shutting down lucrative avenues of funding for Putin’s war machine," said Trevelyan.
