U.S. Charges Russia Broke WTO Rules, Producing Goods at Home after U.S. and EU Sanctions Stopped Imports

Dec. 26, 2021 (EIRNS)—Talk about chutzpah: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in an annual report to Congress on Russia’s WTO compliance, said Russia, since 2014, “has continued its trajectory of an economy moving away from the guiding principles of the WTO: non-discrimination, freer trade, predictability, transparency, and fair competition.” The report said that the U.S. will “use all appropriate means to resolve the matter and keep Russia’s markets open to U.S. exports.”

It was the U.S. and the EU which imposed sanctions on Russia following the U.S.-orchestrated coup against the elected government of Ukraine. The sanctions included a ban on exports of certain agricultural and other products. Russia was forced to massively increase its food production to replace the imports. They were so successful that they are now a major food exporter. It is likely that this so upsets the “free marketeers” in the West who don’t like the competition, that they plan to punish Russia for allegedly breaking WTO rules by producing their own food!

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in her normal stark manner, responded to Tai’s report:

“It is unbelievable, because it concerns a statement by the U.S. Trade Representative, who is claiming that Russia violates the WTO rules when we respond to their sanctions.... She either does not know or forgot that import substitution was a response to the unilateral sanctions, in particular from the EU, and the EU adopted those sanctions under U.S. pressure, as it became clear several years ago.”

Zakharova further declared that, “if anyone has violated WTO rules, it is the U.S. and the EU with their unilateral sanctions.”