REUTERS: "Russian memo to WTO says U.S. sanctions are illegal"

[KoKo]

By Tom Miles

GENEVA Thu Apr 24, 2014 6:26am EDT

(Reuters) - Russia has told the United States that its Ukraine-related sanctions on a Russian bank and Russian citizens are illegal under World Trade Organization rules and must be scrapped.

Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said last week that Russia could launch a dispute at the world trade body to challenge U.S. sanctions.

The latest warning, set out in a confidential document circulated at the WTO on Wednesday, explained what grounds Russia would have for doing so and made clear that Moscow believes it would win a trade dispute if it launched one.

Member countries can claim some exemptions from WTO rules, however, including on grounds of national security.

Although it would be unusual to rely on those grounds to deflect a WTO dispute, the United States invoked the national security argument as a member of the trade body's predecessor organization to justify its economic embargo on Cuba.

The United States and European Union have so far imposed visa bans and asset freezes on a few Russians in protest at Moscow's annexation last month of Crimea from Ukraine.

But U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday he was poised to impose more sanctions on Moscow if it does not act fast to end an armed stand-off in Ukraine's east, where pro-Russian separatists are defying Kiev's authority.

The document also fired a warning shot at other countries that may be thinking of bringing sanctions against Russia.


More at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/24/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-wto-idUSBREA3N0QS20140424

[pampango]

1. The US has lost more WTO cases for not following trading rules than any other country.

Russia may be smart to bring the WTO in on this. (Iran isn't a member of the WTO so they could not bring a case against the sanctions imposed on it.)