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HEAD OF THE UNION OF RUSSIAN INDUSTRIALISTS SENT A LETTER TO US PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH

MOSCOW, 21 February. /RIA Novosti correspondent/. A letter sent on Thursday by Arkady Volsky, head of the Russian Union of industrialists and entrepreneurs, to US President George Bush and which was presented to RIA Novosti stated that plans to introduce special protection measures in relation to import from Russia to the USA of Russian metal products represented a real threat "to progressive development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation". Volsky indicated that "the Russian Union of industrialists and entrepreneurs was seriously concerned with "such turn of events" which might deliver a serious blow against Russian metal producers.

While acknowledging the right of every state to protect the national market in accordance with international regulations and rules, the Union "could not, nevertheless, consider those measures in relation to Russian suppliers as being just".

First of all, because of the availability of three restrictive agreements related to import of metal products from Russia to the USA which provided protection to American producers. According to the Russian Union of industrialists and entrepreneurs, the American side did not take this fact into account during its recent investigations.

Secondly, calculations made by Russian exporters and presented to the US Ministry of Trade demonstrated that "lately export of steel products from Russia was not increased both from the point of view of absolute figures and share distribution." And that was why the letter stated that "it could not inflict material damage or become a threat to US national industry".

The Union of industrialists has serious concerns that Russia might become " the only country in relation to which biased, new and very rigid restrictions would be introduced in addition to already available steel restrictions of 1999".

In this connection Volsky on behalf of the Union requested the US President to instruct a conduct of a detailed investigation of the above-mentioned matter in order "to arrive to a just and objective decision in relation to Russian manufacturers which would correspond to the enunciated and consistently defended by the USA the principle of free trade".

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