Russia will continue seeking amicable agreement

Russia has received a notice from China, the United States, Turkey, Ukraine, and Japan of their intention to join negotiations on the car recycling tax within the WTO which were initiated by the European Union.

Prior to that, on July 9, 2013, the European Union filed a lawsuit on the car recycling tax against Russia to the WTO court. The European Union expected the conflict around the car recycling tax to have been settled prior to July 1, 2013 by making amendments to the law "On Industrial and Consumption Waste" which would equal tax collection terms for domestic and foreign manufacturers, but no amendments were adopted on the date, because the State Duma of Russia was out on summer recess. And now the dispute between the EU and Russia will continue as part of the WTO procedure.

The United States joined the dispute on the Russian car recycling tax on July 18, 2013. On July 22, the Turkish delegation in the WTO noticed Russia and the European Union of its intention to join the negotiations on the ground that the car recycling tax has an adverse effect on Turkish import to Russia.

 

According to the WTO rules, parties to a dispute may have 60 days to reach an amicable agreement, i.e. to settle the issue through negotiations. Upon 60 days the claimant party may demand to form an arbitral group. Ambassador, Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU Vladimir Chizhov stated that Russia would do its best to settle the EU lawsuit amicably to avoid any sanctions.

 

Furthermore, the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan has warned the World Trade Organization (WTO) about its intention to impose economic sanctions on Ukrainian goods.

 

On April 13, 2013, Ukraine imposed a 3-year special duty on imported cars with a cubic capacity of 1-1.5 liters(6.46%) and 1.5-2.2 liters (12.95%) at base rate of 10% to protect domestic manufacturers. This measure triggered protests in certain countries, in particular the EU, the United States, and Japan, whereas Turkey decided to take countermeasures as sanctions: from July 12, 2013, Turkey was entitled to impose an additional duty of 23% of imported Ukrainian walnuts in order to be able to compensated for a loss of $6,11m caused by deteriorated conditions for Turkish import to Ukraine.

 

N.P. Volovik, Head of Foreign Trade Department