Russia has appealed to the World Trade Organization to implement consultations over Ukraine’s sanctions against Moscow, which are active since 2014.
“The Russian delegation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva sent a request to the WTO Dispute Settlement Body and the Government of Ukraine to hold consultations in regard to Ukraine’s constantly imposed sanctions, prohibitions, special requirements and procedures against Russian goods, services and people starting from 2014, as well as transit through Ukraine,” Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said at a meeting of trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Oreshkin noted that the restrictions were mainly aimed at Russian goods, transit and other issues imposed by Ukraine in response to Russia’s role in Ukraine crisis.
“We are talking about bans on importing meat and dairy products, fish, wine and vodka products, equipment for railways, fertilizers, and many other goods from Russia … But also restrictions on operations with the Ukrainian currency, prohibition for accreditation of journalists from Russian news agencies and other media,” said he.
According to the Minister, in the preparation of measures Ukraine also violated its numerous obligations regarding the transparency of the procedures for development and introduction of bans and other restrictions in trade. Despite the requirements of the WTO agreements, the organization was not consistently notified of these measures.
“There are serious grounds to believe that by all these measures taken, Ukraine is violating its obligations towards WTO,” said Oreshkin, according to Russian news agencies.
The Minister of Economy also noted that Ukrainian regulations are transgressing the basic agreements such as the Agreement Establishing WTO, General Agreement on Trade, Import Licensing Agreement etc.
“Thus, the Russian request covers a total of hundreds of elements of Ukrainian regulations and concerns violations of a number of WTO basic agreements, including the Agreement Establishing the WTO, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures,” he added.
Last week, Ukraine imposed restrictions on Russia’s popular online firms to guard against cyber threats.
