Russia considers the latest round of Western sanctions illegal and is ready to appeal against them to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Russian Economy Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev told reporters on Friday.
“The latest round of
sanctions provides grounds to appeal to the WTO. And we will
appeal,” Ulyukaev said.
Russia’s response to the new EU and US sanctions, besides
restricting the import of used cars, may also affect
petrochemicals and machinery products, the minister stressed.
Ulyukaev added that when Russia introduced the first package of
protective measures in the area of food security, it announced
the possibility of restrictions in other areas.
“This applies primarily to industrial products, automobiles
and other equipment such as compressors and refrigerators. In
this case, a large number of machinery and petrochemical products
could also be included in the mechanism of protective
measures,” Ulyukaev said.
However, the minister stressed that the Russian authorities so
far haven’t made the decision to implement the above mentioned
restrictions on Western producers.
“It requires further consideration. But our proposals on this
issue are ready,” he said, also pledging support to the
companies which are hit by the new restrictions from the EU and
US.
“There are different forms
of support. This includes various custom tariff regimes…
possibly direct budget support (and) the possibility of using
pension funds or the National Wealth Fund and other
mechanisms,” the
minister told journalists.
Ulyukaev made the statements in Brussels after talks between
Russia, Ukraine and the EU, which saw Kiev agreeing to postpone
the enforcement of its Association Agreement with the European
Union until the beginning of 2016.
Earlier, Vladimir Putin said that the new sanctions against
Russia are “quite odd” in view of the ceasefire and the
beginning of peace process in eastern Ukraine. The Russian
President has not ruled out responding with tit-for-tat
sanctions, but added that if they are to be imposed, “this
will be to create better conditions for ourselves.”
The new restrictions targeting Russia’s energy, finance and
defense sectors over the events in Ukraine came into force on
Friday morning, after their publication in the EU Official
Journal.
The EU has restricted three Russian energy companies – Rosneft,
Transneft and Gazprom Neft – from raising long-term debt on
European capital markets.
Services that Russia needs in order to extract oil and gas in the
Arctic, deep sea and shale extraction projects have also appeared
on the sanctions list.
The export of any technology considered military
“dual-use” to nine Russian companies has been banned,
including the manufacturer of Kalashnikov rifles.
Five major Russian state-owned banks – Sberbank, VTB,
Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank (VEB) and Rosselkhozbank (Russian
Agricultural Bank) – have been banned from receiving any
long-term (over 30-day) loans from EU companies.
In addition, 24 individuals, including Russian MPs and
businessmen as well as politicians in Crimea and Ukraine’s
southeast region have been prohibited from traveling to the EU
and any assets there have been frozen.
The US has matched the EU initiative with its own set of
sanctions, which also targeted Russia’s biggest lenders –
Sberbank, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank – as well as the
country’s state-owned technology firms and five energy companies.
In the oil sector, there will be new limitations on exploration
facilities for Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz and
Rosneft.
Washington also said it would prohibit “transactions in,
provision of financing for, or other dealings in new debt of
greater than 90 days maturity issued by two additional Russian
energy companies, Gazprom Neft and Transneft.”
Article source: http://rt.com/business/187432-wto-russia-sanctions-ulyukaev/
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