GENEVA, February 16. /TASS/. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has not received any official requests from Russia or Ukraine to consider the situation with the suspension of cargo transport transit, a source in the WTO told TASS.
"The WTO is not going to do anything unless it has an official complaint by one of the parties. If one of the parties says this is against the WTO rules, they can submit the case to the Dispute Settlement Body. If not, if nobody complains officially to the WTO, WTO is not going to say anything or make any comments, or take any position on the issue. That what happens normally. So there is no opinion of the WTO, no position of the WTO unless there is an official complaint by one of the parties," the source said.
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The source noted that complaints to the WTO are not submitted when a given issue has a political context.
"When there is a political context of the problem — that complicates things. Because it is not strictly a trade issue, it is a political thing," the source said.
Earlier on Tuesday, European Commission spokesman Daniel Rosario told TASS, the European Commission finds that the conflict with cargo carriers should be discussed by Russia and Ukraine on the bilateral level.
On February 11, Ukrainian radicals in the Transcarpathian Region announced an unlimited campaign to block the transit of Russian trucks. Later they were joined by radicals in nine regions: Volyn, Rovno, Lviv, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa, Sumy and Chernovtsy.
In response, on February 14, Russia suspended movement of Ukrainian trucks across Russian territory. On February 15, the Ukrainian government officially announced suspension of transit traffic of trucks registered in Ukraine.
From February 16, Russia, fully suspended transit of trucks registered in Ukraine through its territory. "The response measures will be valid until the settlement of the situation linked to the blocking by the Ukrainian side of Russian trucks," the Russian Transport Ministry said in a statement.