(ForUm) - Ukraine's accession to the World Trade Organization will strengthen positions of the national tube industry in protection of its interests on foreign markets, General Director of the Union of Tube Enterprises of Ukraine "UkrTruboProm" (Dnipropetrovsk) Leonid Ksaverchuk said, by way of commenting on Russia's imposing additional 8% duty on import of Ukrainian big-diameter tubes since December 21, 2006, reports Trend.
The Union believes this restriction (the second since early 2006) is discriminative. There were no economic grounds for its introduction. "We hope that after Ukraine joins the WTO, partner-countries will be more correct in holding commerce investigations toward Ukrainian producers and in their desire to decrease the presence of Ukrainian products on their markets will not at least violate their own legislation and WTO norms," Ksaverchuk said.
The additional 8% duty on tube import was introduced by Russia for three years. The produce of the Khartsyzsk and Novomoskovsk Tube Works fall under the duty action, Cabinet press office informed.