Brussels, 20/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Russian president, Vladmir Putin, has not ruled out taking the European Union to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over its restrictions on Russian chemical imports.
At his long annual press conference on 18 December, Putin said he was not expecting to reap immediate benefits from Russia's membership of the WTO, but some mechanisms provide a way of ensuring effective protection of some markets, like metals and chemicals. Some European partners still restrict imports of chemicals and chemical fertilisers from Russia on the pretext of unjustified competitive advantages due to low gas prices, but this, he said, was not true and only an excuse. Putin warned that he had not ruled out challenging these restrictions at the WTO. He said that, hitherto, Russia had not used WTO provisions to protect its products but that it intended to do so.
He welcomed the fact that his country was joining the world trade club because it gave Russian products better credit as Russia started to apply global standards. This implied certain commitments, but would boost confidence among Russia's trading partners, adding that the negative impact was negligible compared with the benefits. (EH/transl.fl)