The World Trade Organization, or WTO, has ruled that Russia’s ban on the transit of Ukrainian goods through its territory to Central Asia is justified on national security grounds, according to the April 5 ruling.
Ukraine has not been able to use road or rail transit routes through Russian territory to Kazakhstan since January 2016 and to Kyrgyzstan since July 2016. Russian authorities also imposed transit restrictions on Ukrainian freight destined for Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
In the first year of the blockade, Ukraine lost nearly half of its exports to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, worth $400 million.
Ukraine’s complaint to the WTO presented the matter as an ordinary trade dispute. It argued that, by imposing bans and restrictions on Ukrainian-produced agricultural products, raw materials, and foodstuffs, Russia violated the commitments it took under the 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATT).
However, Russia counterclaimed referring to Article 21 of GATT, which states that the imposition of an embargo can be justified in the interests of national security during an “emergency in international relations,” a military conflict, or a war.
Russia argued that it imposed the measures against Ukrainian transit to protect its national security after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution drove former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power and Ukraine lost control over parts of its eastern Donbas region.
In reality, Russia played a central role in provoking and curating the conflict in Ukraine’s east.
However, the WTO dispute settlement panel upheld Russia’s claim. According to the April 5 report, it was the first time the WTO had to decide whether a country could use Article 21 to justify the imposition of trade bans and restrictions.
Russia has provided the separatist forces in Donbas with military aid for over five years now and appointed Kremlin proxies to administer the occupied Ukrainian territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, which have not been recognized internationally. At times, Moscow has even sent regular Russian troops to fight there.
This was the third WTO dispute that Ukraine has lost to Russia. In July 2018, Russia won in a case brought against Ukraine after it imposed anti-dumping customs duties on imports of ammonia nitrate used in fertilizers. The same year, Ukraine lost in a complaint brought against Russia for preventing the export of Ukrainian railway equipment by suspending certificates of conformity to technical standards.
