Russia may reconsider free trade regime with Ukraine without violating WTO rules - Moscow

04/07/2014 12:00 - 483 Views

Russia may revise the free trade regime with Ukraine by increasing the amount of the import duties to the level of MFN in full compliance with WTO rules. This opinion was expressed by Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Vasily Nebenzya.

"In accordance with the Association Agreement, the EU agriculture production market is opened for most Ukrainians, and subsidies to farmers in the EU are significantly higher than in Ukraine. The question arises: where will the surplus produced by Ukrainian farmers go? It is quite clear that most of it will go to the neighboring markets of Ukraine, or rather the member countries of the Customs Union," the diplomat said in an interview with the newspaper "Izvestia".

According to him, "such a negative scenario of import growth threatening their own producers is provided in annex 6 of the Treaty on the CIS free trade zone (DZST CIS) and allows Russia to reconsider the free trade regime with Ukraine by increasing the amount of the import duties to the level of MFN in full compliance with WTO rules."

Furthermore, the diplomat said, there is a threat of re-export of agricultural products from Ukraine to the Customs Union, which are not conforming to Russian quality standards. «This is a very painful problem in our relations with the EU. The Russian customs regularly intercept significant quantities of low-quality agricultural products from the EU," said Nebenzya.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, "all sorts of unscrupulous exporters from the European Union are now tempted to try to seep into our market through the "Ukrainian channel".

Diplomat believes that Kiev is sure that Ukraine can without any problems, "sit on two chairs" and be a part of a free trade agreement with both the CIS and the EU.

Source: Voice of Russia