EU challenges Russian recycling fee on foreign cars at WTO

The European Union challenged Russia's recycling fee on foreign cars at the World Trade Organization. The organization's office in Geneva has received the inquiry over the beginning of consultations with Russia, a WTO official told Itar-Tass. As reported by an ITAR-TASS correspondent at the WTO, a request to initiate consultations with the Russian Federation today was filed to the Secretariat of the Organization in Geneva. In the event that the parties fail to reach an agreement during the consultation within the allotted 60 days, the case will be passed to the Dispute Settlement Body of WTO. As practice shows, the final decision on trade disputes takes an average of about one year. The recycling fee was introduced in September 2012 and applies to importers of all types of vehicles, both new and used. For passenger cars the base rate is 20 thousand rubles, for cargo vehicles - 150 thousand, which is adjusted depending on the engine capacity and engine model year. According to European experts, the amount of preferences received by the Russian car industry as a result of this measure exceeds 3 billion euros per year. The Russian government has already introduced a bill to extend utilization fee on domestic vehicles in accordance with the rules of the WTO, but it hasn’t been adopted yet.