Brussels, 29/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Under the threat of a further EU appeal to the WTO, Moscow, which has just challenged European anti-dumping duty there, is hoping for a more fruitful ministerial dialogue.
“The role assumed by the EU in our trade and investment in our country, and Russia's importance for our trade partners of the EU, are such that we cannot expose these relations to any risk. However, we want our dialogue to be more fruitful, but our attempts to arrange ministerial discussions have not met with an adequate response”, said the Russian Minister for economic development, Alexei Uliukaiev, reported by the agency Ria Novosti on 28 January. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of the EU, meeting for their summit in Brussels, confirmed the differences of opinions over several trade-related dossiers.
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum of Davos last week, Commissioner Karel De Gucht hinted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the Commission was “seriously considering bringing several cases” to Geneva, but declined to specify which. The EU has already had a panel set in place to rule on the legality of the recycling tax imposed by Moscow on imported vehicles (DS 4623 at the WTO, EUROPE 10791). When asked about this by Ria Novosti, Minister Uliukaiev was not in a position to explain why the EU was not withdrawing its complaint. The Commission also has Russia's recurrent restrictions on European products for sanitary reasons in its sights, as well as increases in tariffs on dozens of imported products, since it joined the WTO in summer 2012.
In early January, Russia brought its first case against the EU to the WTO: it is challenging its anti-dumping taxes on its imports of ammonium nitrate and steel products (see EUROPE 10991). (EH/transl.fl)