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EU asks Russia for wide range of consultations in WTO format

Russia’s law on a utilization charge for imported cars turned out to pose one of the major contradictions in trade recently

GENEVA, October 3 (Itar-Tass) — EU has asked Russia for bilateral consultations in the framework of the World Trade Organization /WTO/, EU ambassador to the WTO, Angelos Pangratis told Itar-Tass Wednesday.

“We’ve invoked bilateral consultations for the solution of outstanding issues,” he said without going into details about what specific issues were causing contradictions.

Pangratis mentioned the existence of a lengthy agenda but added he would like to refrain from prioritizing the items on it.

“There’s a range of issues and they’re widely known and discussions on them are underway,” he said.

Russia’s law on a utilization charge for imported cars turned out to pose one of the major contradictions in trade recently. The EU urges Moscow to revise the law, claiming it has a discriminatory character and does not comply with the WTO regulations.

Moscow has complaints on its part, too. One of them concerns the continued application of restrictive measures by a number of countries against the supplies of Russian commodities to their markets.

Taking part in the consultations on the Russian side is the head of the delegation at the talks on membership of the WTO, the chief of Economic Development Ministry’s department trade negotiations, Maxim Medvedkov.

Wednesday, the Russian delegation attended a session of the WTO General Council as a full-fledged member of the organization. Pascal Lamy, the WTO Director General opened the session by saying he was glad to welcome the new countries that had taken seats on the General Council.

The two new countries that have taken their seats on the Council are Russia and the small Pacific insular republic of Vanuatu.

“Dobro pozhalovat!” /which stands for “Welcome”/, Lamy said in Russian.

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