The WTO Established Arbitral Groups of Experts on Counter-Claims of the Russian Federation and the EU

At the meeting, an arbitral group of export on the first claim filed by the Russian Federation from the day of accession to the WTO was established. The claim was filed to the EU on energy adjustments in antidumping investigations. Russia claims that in carrying out antidumping investigations the calculation by the EU of costs related to purchasing by Russian enterprises of electricity and gas takes into account not the Russian prices, but higher prices on electricity and gas in other countries which do not have an access to resources. On the basis of such estimates, the EU accuses Russia of dumping. The action was filed by the Russian Federation in December 2013. The dispute failed to be resolved with European colleagues within the frameworks of pre-trial consultations.

The intensions to become the third party in consideration of the claim were expressed by Australia, Argentina, Indonesia, Canada, China, Norway, the US, Turkey and Ukraine.

Also, at the above meeting an arbitral group of experts was established to deal with the claim of the European Union to the Russian Federation as regards a ban on import of European pork to the Russian market. The ban on import to the Russian Federation of pork meat and pigs from all the countries of the European Union was introduced on January 30, 2014 due to a threat of African pig plague. In addition to the above, from April 7, 2014 the Rosselkhoznadzor introduced limitations on the import to the Russian Federation of all the types of ready-made pork meat products from Poland and Lithuania.

The action was filed in April 2014. Efforts to settle the differences by means of bilateral negotiations failed to yield any results. The third party to that claim was Australia, India, China, Norway, South Korea, the US, Taiwan and Japan.

According to the WTO rules, the parties have to approve the names of their experts within the next 20 days. Then, they will have six months to make a decision and after that the country which is not satisfied with the verdict has the right to appeal against it. It takes on average a year to consider a claim.

Nadezhda Volovik, Head of the Department of Foreign Economic Affairs