Russia reserves the right to impose restrictions on the transit of Ukrainian goods
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of Russia in its dispute with Ukraine over a transit route for goods.
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| Illustration photo. Source: 112.International |
In its ruling, the WTO dispute settlement panel said Russia had the right to invoke national security concerns to impose restrictions on the transit of Ukrainian goods by road or rail.
This is the first time the WTO has issued a ruling in a dispute involving national security.
In 2016, Ukraine complained to Russia at the WTO after Moscow banned road and rail traffic from Ukraine unless it passed through Belarus, amid rising tensions between the two countries over the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Kiev said the restrictions had severely reduced Ukraine’s trade with Asia and the Caucasus region.
After the WTO issued the above ruling, the Russian Economy Ministry said that this ruling shows that Kiev's arguments are baseless and this issue is of systemic importance for the World Trade Organization.
In the ruling, the WTO affirmed that the organization has the right to consider requests related to national security, thereby rejecting the US argument that national security issues are not within the WTO's jurisdiction.
According to the WTO, if Russia had imposed the restrictions during normal times, Ukraine would have won the dispute. However, given the apparent tensions between the two countries, Russia has the right to invoke national security concerns to impose the restrictions.
The WTO ruling is expected to affect US tariff complaints.
In July last year, under the pretext of protecting the essential security interests of the United States, President Donald Trump announced a 25% and 10% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from a number of countries, including those in the European Union (EU), as well as Brazil, Canada, China and Mexico. The countries involved retaliated by imposing tariffs on the United States, while asserting that the US tariff move was purely trade protectionism and had nothing to do with national security as the White House claimed.
President Trump is now considering a similar legal basis to impose a 25% tariff on imported cars globally, a move the WTO warned would be an even greater economic shock than the US-China trade war./.
