Moscow will put forward a wide range of counterarguments at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in dispute with Washington over increased duties on a number of U.S. products imposed by Russia, the Kremlin said Wednesday.
"We do not consider it normal. On the other hand, this is their legal right, and, of course, Russia in this case will use a wide range of counterarguments," Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia's Sputnik news agency.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. filed a complaint at the WTO requesting consultations with Russia over its "unfair" new tariffs on certain U.S. goods.
On August 5, Russia started imposing additional import tariffs of 25-40 percent for a range of U.S. goods, in retaliation to U.S. extra tariffs of 25 percent on steel and of 10 percent on aluminum starting on March 23.
The request for consultations served as the first step in the legal proceedings within the WTO framework. If the consultations fail to yield results, a specific panel will be set up to settle the dispute.
On Wednesday, the Russian Economic Development Ministry also dismissed the U.S. move, saying that Washington "incorrectly interpreted the nature of the measures taken by Moscow."
"We are acting within the framework of WTO agreement on special protective measures, which allows countries to compensate for damages caused by 'special protective measures' taken by another country (the U.S. in this case)," the ministry said in a statement.
The volume of new Russian tariffs at the current stage will amount to 87.6 million U.S. dollars a year, according to a previous statement by the ministry.
