Targeting Western sanctions, particularly the EU's request for trade reprisals as part of its WTO complaint against the Russian embargo on pork, the Russian Parliament (Duma) voted on Friday 12 January in support of adopting an official instruction calling on the Russian government to present it with information on the opportunity of maintaining Russia's WTO membership.
On 3 January, the EU called on the WTO to authorise it to take trade measures against Russia as part of the EU's complaint against the health embargo set up by Moscow in January 2014 against EU exports of live pigs, pork and other pork products, in connection with cases of African swine fever discovered in Lithuania and Poland (DS 475).
Criticising Russia for not respecting an agreement on the sequencing of the different stages in the dispute settlement process as part of the appeal confirmation on 21 March 2017 of the WTO's condemnation of the Russian health embargo against European pork, the EU is planning on tariff reprisals worth €1.39 billion with an annual 15% rate increase.
Russia has made known its "categorical disagreement" with the EU's position. The WTO dispute settlement body has agreed to give its verdict on the EU's request.
On 8 January, the head of trade negotiations at the ministry of economic development, Maxim Medvedkov, said that Russia did not plan on withdrawing from the WTO, but that its dispute with the EU would be settled in the framework of WTO mechanisms. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)