BRUSSELS, January 22. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Commission “does not invent itself” anti-dumping measures against Russia, “but takes them under the influence of European lobby structures,” Russia's Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told Russian reporters on Wednesday in the run-up to the Russia-EU summit that will be held in Brussels on January 28.
“The number of antidumping investigations in our relations with the European Union is wavelike, their total number once reached 12, at present five are underway - three on pipes, one on ferro-silicon and one on ammonium nitrate (chemical fertilizers),” he said. “The European Commission does not invent all these measures against Russian products itself, but takes them under pressure from the lobby structures, financed by European companies, for example, ammonium nitrate producers.”
However, Chizhov stressed, Russia “is far from being the leader in the number of antidumping measures taken by the European Commission,” where China carries the palm “steadily and for long.”
He recalled that the European Commission had initiated an investigation in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on car recycling tax.
“We have already adopted the necessary legislative amendments. It was a long and uneasy process - it was necessary to change the federal law. The main claim of the Europeans the reasonableness of which we did not challenge is that the size of the car recycling tax was different for the domestic producers and for importers. We levelled them out, by the way, at the expense of the domestic manufacturers. Some small things remain, for example, the issue of dependence of the tax on the engine capacity. However, this is decided on a technical level. Nevertheless, the procedure launched by the EU in the WTO continues so far,” he said.
Russia for its part has “launched its own procedure on the so-called energy adjustments,” which lie at the root of European antidumping measures that are applied to the metallurgical and chemical industry products.
“Brussels emphasizes that natural gas and electricity prices in Russia are lower than in the world and even lower than Russia’s export prices. However, we don’t make claims that, for instance, Spain has abundant sunshine, and so its oranges are less expensive. We have such climate that in several districts it is necessary to heat plants almost all year round. The EU ignores this fact and takes a certain simulated situation as a benchmark,” the Russian ambassador said.