Brussels, 02/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Russia is planning an appeal to the WTO against the trade preferences that the EU has granted Ukraine since 1 April (until 1 November) while awaiting the signature and entry into force of the EU-Ukraine free-trade agreement.
“These preferences contradict the basic principles of the preferential treatment regime and the WTO basic principle of non-discrimination”, said Russia's Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexei Likhachev, as quoted by Russian news agency Ria-Novosti.
Without a bilateral trade agreement, these tariff preferences constitute a breach of the WTO principle of most favoured nation and they are discriminatory against other WTO members, including the Russian Federation, Russia said at a WTO committee meeting in Geneva on 15 May on market access. Argentina and Venezuela shared Russia's concerns. Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba said they would be following the issue closely.
In mid-April, the EU adopted a regulation providing for a decrease in, or temporary removal of, EU customs duties for Ukrainian products - in line with the list of concessions in the trade section of the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine, which was partly signed on 21 March. This regulation, which entered into force on 23 April, will be applied until the entry into force or implementation of the association agreement, but will in any event cease to be applied from 1 November 2014.
The temporary tariff concessions granted by the EU to support Ukraine cover 82.3% of Ukrainian agricultural products and 94.7% of its industrial products. (EH)