WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will no longer treat Russia as a market economy country, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, revoking the status granted two decades ago that limited the calculation of anti-dumping duties on Russian goods.
The Commerce Department said its analysis found “extensive” government involvement in the Russian economy had led to distorted prices and costs, which it said did not accurately reflect whether Russian companies were fairly pricing imports into the United States.
“This decision gives the United States the ability to apply the full force of the U.S. anti-dumping law to address the market distortions caused by increasing interference from the Russian government in their economy,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.
Washington granted Russia market economy status in 2002, an essential step for Russia’s admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2012.
Last year, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia said that Moscow would be able to challenge any U.S. decision to strip Russia of its market economy status at the WTO.
However, Moscow’s relations with the West have dramatically deteriorated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The United States, along with other Western countries, have imposed broad sanctions intended to cut Russia off economically after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February in what it calls a “special military operation”.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
