Forty WTO members announce actions against Russia and Belarus

Forty members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the United States, the United Kingdom and the 27 countries of the European Union (EU), announced that they will take measures against Russia and Belarus to “protect their essential security interests”. .

These measures could include the unilateral suspension of most-favoured-nation treatment to Russiasomething that has already been dictated in recent days by some of the countries that are signatories today, such as United States, Canada or those of the EU.

“As members of the WTO, we will take any action we deem necessary to protect our essential security interests, including action in support of Ukraine or suspension of concessions or other obligations towards Russia.”they pointed out in a statement sent by the Mission of United States before the UN in Geneva.

In said communication they also considered suspended the process of admission to the WTO of Belarusfor him “material support” of this country to the actions of Russia on Ukraine.

Albania, Australia, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia and Norway also joined this joint declaration, in which the forty signatories reiterated their condemnation of the Russian invasion and their solidarity with Ukraine. .

The most favored nation status exists to prevent the countries that make up the WTO (164) from discriminating between their various trading partners.

By virtue of this, if a special advantage is granted to a country, for example, a tariff reduction for one of its products, the same must be done with all the other members of the organization (with exceptions, as in the case of free trade agreements).

In practice, withdrawing it would allow imports from Russia to be levied at whatever level they wish, deny Russian firms access to their services markets and fail to protect their intellectual property rights.

On the other hand, the EU requested on Monday the suspension of a panel of the dispute resolution body formed at the WTO to resolve a commercial dispute initiated by Brussels against Russia last year.

This dispute had been initiated by Brussels in July 2021, considering that Russia applies price policies, authorization requirements and minimum quotas in order to benefit its national producers, in contravention of the international trade laws that ensure the WTO.

This unusual move within the Geneva-based organization is seen by some observers as a further step towards isolating Russia in this and other international bodies.

The progressive isolation of Russia within the WTO could compromise the preparations for the Ministerial Conference scheduled for June 13.