EU: Duties or Blockade, however the Commission does not do anything about Russian oil
The European Union is unlikely to reach a unanimous decision on the idea of a tariff tariff on Russian oil, an idea launched by the US to harm Moscow's exports, according to Argus . An almost obvious event, considering that, in the end, they are two sides of the same coin.
Fundamentally, an EU-wide agreement on tariffs is likely to be difficult to achieve due to the opposition of the same parties that are now opposing the ban on Russian oil, namely Hungary in particular. After all, the effects of the two measures are not very different.
The idea of an EU tariff on oil imports from Russia comes from the United States, which is considering proposing to European countries to impose a tariff instead of an embargo, to allay concerns about security of supply and the increase. of oil prices. The EU could combine tariffs and embargoes, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday after discussing ways to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian energy with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In this way there would be no ban on imports from Russia, but this would be less convenient.
But according to an EU official: “There is no way for us, under the common commercial policy, to simply raise tariffs. We have to respect the rules ”.
"It would be sanctions, not something that is part of trade policy," an official told Argus, commenting on the possibility of a tariff on Russian oil.
In a sanctions regime, not a trade policy regime, a tariff would also require unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states, including Hungary, as in the case of the proposed oil embargo on Russian crude oil and products. refined.
At the beginning of May, the European Commission officially proposed a total ban on Russian imports of crude oil and petroleum products, which should come into effect by the end of the year, but for now it is only a hope because we are still on the subject. far from reaching an agreement.
At a meeting on Monday, EU foreign ministers failed to persuade Hungary to abandon its veto on an embargo. Diplomats hope that a summit in late May will reach a unanimous decision on the ban on Russian oil, to be phased out over six months and with exemptions for Central European countries including Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. That is practically voluntary tariffs are applied, stupid and ineffective, which will only have the effect of further increasing the price of oil for EU citizens. In fact, no one asked that they think of the matter.
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The EU article: Duties or Blockade, however the Commission does not combine anything on Russian oil comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/ue-dazi-o-blocco-comunque-la-commissione-non-combina-nulla-sul-petrolio-russo/ on Sat, 21 May 2022 17:05:42 +0000.