Page 17 - RusRPTJuly18

The bill titled United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act (FART) essentially provides Trump a license to raise US tariffs at will, without congressional consent and international rules be damned. The draft bill that would declare the US abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization’ rules may be submitted to the Congress in the near future by the request of President Donald Trump. The website referred to the text of the draft bill. Most officials involved in the bill's drafting think the bill is unrealistic or unworkable, according to reports. However trade adviser Peter Navarro is confident that the bill would get plenty of support, particularly from Democrats.
The Swedish Court of Appeal has maintained its ruling in place, giving some relief to Russian natural gas major in its ongoing struggle with Ukrainian Naftogaz . Earlier in June the appeal court has put the earlier ruling by Stockholm Arbitrage to award Naftogaz $2.6bn compensation on pause for the duration of an appeal brought by Gazprom. Naftogaz has tried to contest the new decision , but without success. This means that Gazprom has little pressure to repay the $2.6bn award until its appeal is fully reviewed.
Former Ukrainian prime minister and Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) faction leader Yulia Tymoshenko has formally launched her bid for the presidential election due to be held in 2019. Tymoshenko has lead the opinion polls as the leading candidate over the past two years.
The European Union has extended sanctions against Russia's annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by one year until June 2019, according to the June 18 statement . "On 18 June 2018, the Council extended the restrictive measures in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia until 23 June 2019," the EU’s council of ministers said in a statement. The prohibitions under the sanctions include imports of products into EU, investment in Crimea, tourism services, exports of certain goods and technologies, telecommunication and energy sectors and related to the exploration and production of oil, gas and mineral resources. The sanctions imposed by the EU and US since 2014 have become a given for Russian outlooks for short- to mid-term perspective. However, since April 6 when the harshest round of sanctions yet by the US Treasury has directly targeted Russian billionaires and Kremlin insiders Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg , the uncertainty around the sanctions regime grew. In the latest report on Russia Fitch Ratings said that the tightening of international sanctions remains a major risk to investment in the economy .
The Russian Cabinet approved a bill to gradually raise the retirement age
to 65 years for men and up to 63 years for women from 60/55. A phased increase will start from 2019 with a step of six months a year. running through to 2034.
Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin announced that Russia will soon introduce duties on US imports in response to US import duties on steel and aluminum. Russia estimated the damage from the US duties at $537.6mn per year. Moscow on May 22 notified the WTO about plans to introduce retaliatory measures for a similar amount. The cost of reciprocal trade restrictions on goods from the United States at the first stage will be about $93mn.
More on than 1.5mn Russians signed an online petition initiated by the Russian Labour Confederation on Change.org protesting against the recent decision to dramatically hike retirement ages, Vedomosti daily said on June 17. The petition follows demonstrations involving several hundred Russians in the regional city of Novosibirsk on June 16 against the government’s decision to raise retirement ages for men and women from 60/55 years to 65/63 a day earlier.
RUSSIA Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com