Ukraine complains that Russia has blocked access of Ukrainian goods to Central Asia
Ukraine has launched proceedings at the WTO regarding demands introduced in Russia since the beginning of the year to supply Ukrainian goods sent to Kazakhstan (and from July to Kyrgyzstan) only through Belarus, using GLONASS system tags, as well as ordering trucks to follow a certain route and accompanied representatives of the customs service, Kommersant reports, pointing out that Kiev is also dissatisfied with the complete ban on the transit of goods subject to the food embargo of August 2014, and those for which duties in the EAEU are above zero.
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“According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy, restrictions led to a decrease in exports to the markets of Central Asia and the Caucasus in the first half of 2016 by 35,1%, including to Kazakhstan by 45,5%. “In general, losses from the export of goods to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are estimated at about $0,4 billion, which will form an additional loss of GDP in the amount of 0,3%,” the Ukrainian ministry calculated,” the publication states.
“The outcome of the current proceedings cannot be called unambiguous, despite the fact that transit is the “sacred cow” of the WTO and is quite clearly protected, believes Sergei Afontsev, head of the department of economic theory at IMEMO RAS. According to the expert, the Russian side can use as an argument the facts of unfair practices of transit deliveries, which in fact did not reach the destination country, but ended up on the Russian market, and the absence of measures on the part of Ukraine to limit such supplies. Accordingly, the decline in Ukraine’s trade with Central Asian countries in this case cannot be used as evidence of losses in actual transit supplies,” writes Kommersant.
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