EU Members Back Ending Russia’s WTO Most-Favored-Nation Trade Status

(Bloomberg) -- European Union member states broadly backed a proposal Friday to end Russia's most-favored-nation treatment at the World Trade Organization, opening the door to new tariffs on 95 billion euros ($105 billion) of Moscow's exports to the trading bloc. 

“There was strong support to work with like-minded countries on a joint statement and a willingness to take appropriate trade measures as an action,” said Miriam Garcia Ferrer, a European Commission spokeswoman. “From an EU perspective, such measures would be adopted on the same procedures as was used to adopt the previous rounds of sanctions.” 

The WTO's principle of most-favored-nation nondiscrimination requires its members to offer the same tariff rates equally to all of the organization's 164 members, which makes it a cornerstone principle of the WTO and a key reason for nations to participate. 

While current EU sanctions already have closed off a significant portion of financial and trade ties with most European companies, ending the current WTO status would allow new tariffs and export bans for any Russian companies still doing business with the EU. 

The EU is Russia's biggest trade partner, accounting for 37% of the country's total trade in goods with the world in 2020. Total trade between the two regions that year amounted to 174.3 billion euros. The EU's top import from Russia is petroleum -- worth about 67 billion euros a year. 

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