About it Dmitry Medvedev said on June 27 at a meeting on international trade issues. At the meeting, he instructed the Ministry of economic development to prepare a response in respect of applied administration trump import duties on steel and aluminum.
“Today we will look at some issues related to the participation of our country in the international trading system. Discuss further steps subject to the restrictive measures taken recently by some countries against our country.
Let me remind you that joining the world trade organization, we have undertaken certain obligations to promote them in life and watch how they are executed. Has been adapted for our economy: we lowered customs duties where it is necessary to fulfill the common standards. Additionally, supported the industries that were most affected by the new conditions of work (agriculture, automotive, light industry, food industry). Of course, all of this was discussed with the business community.
Naturally, we expect that our partners will stick to its commitments to observe WTO rules. Unfortunately, we sometimes see the opposite situation: without any legitimate reason to unilaterally restrictive or prohibitive duties, use other protectionist measures. Our country has experienced this directly, in violation of free trade rules in respect of our business has been applied harsh economic sanctions. As you know, the us introduced retaliatory restrictive measures in respect of a number of countries on certain categories of goods. They remain in force, and subject to earlier decisions in the European Union in some other countries, we will need to consider the extension of these measures for the next period. I mean 2019.
In addition, recently, decisions were made by the administration for certain groups of goods in respect of a very large number of countries. These measures are also discriminatory, cannot remain without consequences. Response steps have already been made by the countries of the European Union, people’s Republic of China, and we need to think about the introduction of retaliatory measures. Ask the economic development Ministry to prepare appropriate proposals”.
