KIEV, July 7. /TASS/. A possible motion by Moscow to impose quotas on the Ukrainian commodities, which run the risk of being squeezed out by dirt-cheap imports from the EU, will be considered by the Ukrainian government as a de facto elimination of free trade between the two countries, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade said quoting Ukraine’s trade representative, Natalya Nikolskaya.
"Any imposition by Russia of unilateral restrictions in the form of tariff quotas will be considered as an encroachment on the Agreement on the CIS Free Trade Zone and will mean a de facto elimination of free trade between Ukraine and the Russian Federation," the statement said.
Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Alexei Likhachev said earlier Moscow had proposed to set the quotas for Ukrainian commodities from a ‘risk group’ in case of implementation of an agreement on association between Ukraine and the EU.
"In my opinion, we’ve suggested a most harmless solution," he said. "Since we’re speaking about the risks of whipping out of the Ukrainian goods and their replacement with European ones at dumping prices, we’ve proposed to fix quotas on the basis of the maximum exports of those commodities to Russia over recent years."
Duties will be applied only to the exports in excess of the quotas, as this measure does not contradict regulations of the World Trade Organization.
Ukraine insists, on its part, that antidumping measures can be effectuated only after legal procedures in the framework of the WTO.