Russia hits back at US, raises import duties
Russia has struck back against the US decision to impose tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium by imposing its own tariffs on US goods.
Russia’s Economy Ministry announced in a statement that it would impose extra tariffs on some goods from the United States for which there are Russian-made substitutes.
The extra duties of 25 to 40 percent will apply to imports of fibre optics and equipment for road construction, the oil and gas industries and metal processing and mining, Reuters reported.
The ministry said the measures, signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, were intended to compensate for $87.6 million of damage suffered by Russian export-focused companies as a result of the U.S. metals tariffs.
The US tariff hike will cost an overall $537.6 million and Russia has the right to impose more compensatory measures in the future, Reuters quoted the Russian Economy Ministry statement as saying.
Import duties on US road-building machinery could help Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was hit by US sanctions and controls GAZ, Russia's biggest maker of road-building equipment.
Deripaska has already asked the Russian state to purchase some output from his aluminium company RUSAL in an effort to alleviate the pain inflicted by US sanctions, Reuters further wrote in its report on the development.
Russia’s move to impose tariffs on US goods comes after China accused the US of igniting the “biggest trade war in economic history”, with Beijing and Washington imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s goods on Friday amid a spiralling dispute over technology, according to a report by The Independent.
The European Union (EU), India, China and Russia all have applied to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to challenge the US tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium, which mostly took effect back in March. Washington argued they were for national security reasons.
While President Donald Trump has boasted that trade wars are “good” and “easy to win”, the global ramifications of such hardline measures has worried financial markets and many of Washington’s international partners, The Independent added.
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