Russia is not ruling out the possibility of transferring Ukraine from a preferential trade regime to a most favored nation regime if trade risks emerge, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told journalists on July 11.
“The grounds for this lie in the sixth appendix of the agreement on a CIS free trade zone. It states that if the implementation of any agreement leads to an increase of imports that causes concern, that country has the right to impose relevant limitations,” he said.
“‘Leads to’ means the emergence of risk. Not when statistics showed an increase of imports, but when the possibility of damages emerged. From our point of view, we have every legal justification for this,” he said.
On July 11 the Russian minister held bilateral meetings in Brussels, starting with the Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, and then with European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht.
This evening consultations on the affects of the agreement on free trade between the EU and Ukraine on Russia continued in a trilateral format.
