Russia to present counterarguments over tariffs dispute with US at WTO: Kremlin
Xinhua
1535650969000

Capture.JPG

Russia's President Vladimir Putin talks to US President Donald Trump during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. (Photo: Reuters)

MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Xinhua) -- Moscow will put forward a wide range of counterarguments at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in dispute with Washington over increased duties on a number of US products imposed by Russia, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

"We do not consider it normal. On the other hand, this is their legal right, and, of course, Russia in this case will use a wide range of counterarguments," Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia's Sputnik news agency.

Earlier in the day, the US filed a complaint at the WTO requesting consultations with Russia over its "unfair" new tariffs on certain US goods.

On August 5, Russia started imposing additional import tariffs of 25-40 percent for a range of US goods, in retaliation to US extra tariffs of 25 percent on steel and of 10 percent on aluminum starting on March 23.

The request for consultations served as the first step in the legal proceedings within the WTO framework. If the consultations fail to yield results, a specific panel will be set up to settle the dispute.

On Wednesday, the Russian Economic Development Ministry also dismissed the US move, saying that Washington "incorrectly interpreted the nature of the measures taken by Moscow."

"We are acting within the framework of WTO agreement on special protective measures, which allows countries to compensate for damages caused by 'special protective measures' taken by another country (the US in this case)," the ministry said in a statement.

The volume of new Russian tariffs at the current stage will amount to $87.6 million a year, according to a previous statement by the ministry.