US strips Russia of ‘market economy’ status
The US Department of Commerce has announced it will no longer treat Russia as a market economy, arguing that American industries and manufacturers are struggling to compete with Russian companies in domestic and global markets.
The move will allow Washington to unleash the “full force of the US antidumping law” to ensure “that US industries get the relief from unfair imports that they are entitled to,” the Commerce Department said in a statement on Thursday.
“This decision is an important acknowledgement of the rise of Russian state-influence in their economy, which puts US industries at a disadvantage when trying to compete globally,” it added, insisting that its conclusions were based on “in-depth analysis of research from impartial, third-party sources.”
The Commerce Department will now apply an “alternative methodology” to calculate the duties and fees on future imports from Russia, since the alleged “extensive government involvement in the economy has led to distorted prices and costs in Russia, which do not accurately reflect whether Russian companies are fairly pricing imports into the United States.”
Moscow’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, called the move “illogical,” and accused Washington of further deepening the “imbalances in world markets, which are caused by numerous illegitimate unilateral barriers.”
The US designated Russia a “market economy” back in 2002 in a move that helped the country to eventually join the World Trade Organization one decade later. Earlier this year, the US suspended normal trade relations with Russia to punish Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.
