Ukraine Takes Russia To WTO Over Railway Equipment

Ukraine has launched a trade dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a complaint about Russia's restrictions on Ukrainian-made railway equipment.

The WTO said in a statement on October 21 that Ukraine contended the Russian restrictions had been in place since late 2013.

Ukraine alleged that the restrictions broke several WTO rules and amounted to an effective ban on imports of the products into Russia, the WTO statement said.

An official at Russia's Ministry for Economic Development told TASS that "tactics" were being devised to deal with the Ukrainian complaint.

The action comes with relations between Kyiv and Moscow already tense due mainly to Russia's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March 2014 and the Kremlin's direct backing of pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and TASS