Xinhua, Moscow :
Russia said Wednesday it would take protective measures in case future association agreements between former Soviet republics and the European Union (EU) negatively affect the trade within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
“Once the future agreements by our CIS free trade zone partners with the EU come in force, and negatively affect the free trade zone, as well as conditions of the World Trade Organization (WTO), we’ll definitely take protective measures,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Lavrov stressed that Moscow would like to wait and see what consequences the expected agreements would bring for the trade between CIS countries.
Ukraine and the EU are scheduled to sign economic chapters of a comprehensive Association Agreement on Friday, which would remove tariffs on around 90 percent of the goods traded between the two sides. Georgia and Moldova also plan to sign similar agreements with the EU.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Wednesday Kiev was ready to start consultations with Russia over the impact of the Ukraine-EU trade deal on bilateral economic relations. Consultation between Russia, EU and the three post-Soviet countries was scheduled for July 11.
Eight CIS countries, namely Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan, signed a free trade zone treaty in October 2011. Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were the only members of the 11-strong union that had not joined the agreement.
