Russia Restricting Ag Imports, USTR Notes in Report

Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2012 initially led to greater U.S. exports, but overall, its adherence to WTO rules has been disappointing, the U.S. trade representative said in his annual report to Congress. The report, released late Feb. 4, said non-tariff barriers are a greater problem than tariffs. In 2017, the U.S. exported $7 billion in goods to Russia, with aircraft accounting for one-third of the total. The U.S. imported $17 billion in goods, with oil nearly half of that and steel and aluminum about a quarter of the total.

The report focused on some barriers to agricultural and food imports. There's currently a ban on certain beef, poultry, pork, seafood, fruits, vegetables and nuts and most prepared foods from the U.S., Australia, Canada, the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Ukraine, Montenegro and Lichtenstein. "Russia claims the current ban is justified on the basis of national security concerns," USTR wrote. "The United States intends to press Russia on the stated justification for these troubling quantitative restrictions." Russia finally lifted its transit ban on poultry products, the report said, but Russia has disrupted transit of U.S. poultry since then, "referencing long dormant and obscure railway regulations and dubious sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) claims."