Russian import duties on paper, refrigerators and palm oil exceeded those agreed when Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2012, the world trade body agreed last year in a case brought by the EU.
It argued that the illegal measures were severely hampering trade in important sectors. EU exports of the products concerned to Russia were worth some €600 million a year before the dispute was launched.
This week, Russia announced that it had lowered its import tariffs on the products concerned in a move described by the European Commission as a victory for multilateral trade rules.
Details of the Russian statement can be found at www.wto.org.
In response, the European Commission said: “This is only one of many successful cases brought by the EU to the WTO dispute settlement in the last years. EU legal action in the WTO also allowed it to improve the access of EU firms to raw materials sources in China and to remove Chinese extra duties on European steel tubes and X-ray scanners.”
Noting that effective enforcement of existing trade rules is one of the key points of the EU’s 2015 trade policy strategy Trade for All, the Commission said that it will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure that WTO commitments are fully respected.
