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RUSSIA

EU seeks WTO aid over Russian fridge duties

The European Union is asking the Geneva-based World Trade Organization to help settle a dispute with Russia over "excessive import duties" on refrigerators and other products.

EU seeks WTO aid over Russian fridge duties
Photo: WTO

The wrangling is the latest of a long line of politically-charged trade disputes between the EU and its third largest trading partner Russia amid the Ukraine crisis.
   
"The EU requested today the establishment of a dispute settlement panel at the World Trade Organization in Geneva concerning Russia's excessive import duties, in particular on paper products, refrigerators and palm oil," Brussels said on Thursday.
   
The EU's request for the WTO to create a panel of experts to review the dispute comes after the two sides failed to settle the issue through consultations late last year.
   
Brussels is accusing Moscow of not respecting commitments it made when Russia joined the WTO in 2012 to maintain import duties below a certain limit.
   
"It has continued taxing a number of products across various sectors more heavily than agreed," the EU said, adding that "this is still the case today for certain products of interest for the EU."
   
Brussels, which exports goods worth €120 billion ($135 billion) a year to Russia, said Moscow's excessive duties were costing the bloc some €600 million annually.

It also raises "systemic concern, as it constitutes a violation of one of the key WTO principles," it said.

The WTO dispute settlement body will evaluate the EU's panel request next month.

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RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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