Brussels, 26/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 25 March, the WTO agreed to set up a dispute settlement panel to examine the EU's complaint on the tariff treatment used by Russia for certain EU 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 states. 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. The EU then requested on 26 February that a WTO dispute settlement panel be set up, but Russia opposed this. On Wednesday, the EU made another request for WTO arbitration and - under WTO rules - Russia was not able to block this request. Once they have been appointed, the panel experts from the dispute settlement body will have six months to decide whether or not the Russian legislation is in line with WTO rules.
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).
Russia is the EU's third biggest trading partner, with the EU exporting goods to Russia for a value of €120 billion per year. (Emmanuel Hagry)