"The barrier measures which the European Commission has proposed for Russia and Ukraine, but leaving out the USA and Canada, were a 'discriminating approach.'" "..do not meet the rules of world market trade established by the World Trade Organization"

BBC Monitoring Service
United Kingdom
November 01, 2002

Moscow, 1 November: The European Union's plan to impose quotas and higher export taxes on Russia's grain exports does not meet the rules of world market trade established by the World Trade Organization, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Aleksey Gordeyev has said.

He told ITAR-TASS on Friday [1 November] that the barrier measures which the European Commission has proposed for Russia and Ukraine, but leaving out the USA and Canada, were a "discriminating approach". It indicates that the "European Union does not wish to build relations with Russia as market trade and the World Trade Organization's rules warrant".

A source in Gordeyev's office told ITAR-TASS that Russia was activating grain trade with many European countries, including Italy and Greece. The restrictive measures considered by the European Union "will upset laid plans and tentative accords with these countries", the source said. Should this occur, Russia would have to reorient more of its grain exports to traditional buyers such as Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

Russia has exported more than 4m tonnes of grain this year, while at least 8m tonnes remain in store for selling abroad.

The European Commission proposed on Thursday that quotas of grain exports for Russia and Ukraine be set at 4m tonnes each in 2003, with any extra levied at an additional 40 euros per tonne.