US trade actions threaten Ukraine and strengthen Russia

As the American president prepares for his first meeting with the president of the Russian Federation this week, at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the US Department of Commerce is making two important trade decisions that threaten Ukraine's economic and geopolitical stability.

In 2014, when Ukraine was recovering from the loss of Crimea and was fighting in the Donbass, the US International Trade Commission and the US Department of Commerce decided to introduce anti-dumping duties on the supply of steel pipe products used in the drilling industry. But due to the emergency situation in Ukraine, the Ministry of Trade suspended the aforementioned decision in September 2014, which allowed Ukraine to make limited sales of such pipes in the United States at affordable prices, the level of which was determined by the Ministry of Trade and set high enough to exclude any possibility of dumping. ... The agreement to suspend the special duties made it possible for Ukraine to make sales in the United States, providing itself with relative comfort, which cannot be said about the anti-dumping order. But, although the crisis in Ukraine continues, and a small volume of pipe products produced on the Ukrainian market, which is less than 1% of US exports, the Commerce Department announced that it would resume US-Ukrainian anti-dumping duties after July 10, thereby taking away Western tariffs from Ukraine. "Lifebuoy".

Not only that, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also initiated a radical investigation of all US steel imports under Article 232 regarding national security interests, which threatens to further restrict steel imports from Ukraine. A similar investigation was carried out in 2001, but then the Department of Commerce concluded that steel imports did not have a serious impact on national security.

The whole world will be watching the meeting between Trump and Putin. And it would be tragic if the Trump administration's decisions on the steel trade, which have such potentially dire consequences for Ukraine, were not properly factored into US policy. The impending date for the abolition of the “grace period” for Ukraine, combined with the upcoming meeting of the presidents, prompted Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman and Minister of Trade and Economic Development Stepan Kubiv to send formal letters to the US State Department and the US Trade Mission asking for the continuation of the suspension agreement. for Ukraine of any consequences in accordance with Article 232 of the US Law, which can subsequently be recommended to Trump.

Contrary to the intention to toughen US sanctions against Russia, which has been voted for in the last few weeks by the Senate