Brussels, 27/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 February, the EU called on the WTO to set up a dispute settlement panel to examine the EU's complaint about the tariff treatment Moscow applies to certain European goods in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors (DS 485).
In this new dispute taken to the WTO against Russia, the EU criticises Moscow for applying customs duties to certain products that are above the bound rates which Russia committed not to exceed when it joined the WTO in 2012. The EU is targeting Russian duties applied to EU exports of paper and card, palm oil and its derivatives, refrigerators and fridge/freezers.
Russia diverges in two ways from what was agreed when it joined the WTO: either it applies a higher customs duty of 15% (instead of 5%), or it sets a minimum amount that must be paid (even if this is not justified by the duty rate that was agreed, expressed as a percentage of the product value), the European Commission explains. These excessive customs duties have a negative impact on European exports of the three products concerned, which are worth approximately €600 million per year.
At the end of October 2014, the EU had asked for WTO consultations on this issue, but the consultations - which were held on 28 November - did not enable the dispute to be resolved.
This new dispute setting the EU - as complainant - against Russia, is the fourth since 2012, following on from disputes about a Russian recycling tax on vehicles (DS 462), Russian measures targeting pork imports (DS 479) and a Russian tax on light vehicles (DS 479). (Emmanuel Hagry)