A worker cuts a piece from a steel coil at the Novolipetsk Steel PAO steel mill in Farrell, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 9, 2018. (REUTERS PHOTO)
MOSCOW, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Russia, a major producer and exporter of aluminum and steel, is working out a response to the U.S. introduction of import tariffs on these items, including slapping duties on some U.S. imports, a senior Russian official said Tuesday.
"If the decision to impose duties is adopted, these measures should be significant," TASS news agency quoted Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Yevtukhov as saying.
However, he said, this measure may be used only in an extreme case. Before that Moscow intends to start negotiations with the United States to persuade Washington to reconsider its decision.
If the negotiations fail, then Moscow would appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body, Yevtukhov said.
According to WTO rules, the process of settling a dispute may take about 15 months.
The United States introduced from March 23 a 25-percent import duty on steel and a 10-percent import duty on aluminum to protect domestic producers from excessive imports.
The duties were postponed for Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and South Korea until May 1.
According to Yevtukhov's preliminary assessment, Russia would lose 2 billion U.S. dollars for steel and 1 billion dollars for aluminum.
According to official Russian customs data, last year the country exported 8.9 million tons of rolled steel products worth 3.3 billion dollars and 3.48 million tons of aluminum worth nearly 5 billion dollars.
Russia's imports from the United States amounted to 9.1 billion dollars in the first nine months of 2017, an increase of 24.95 percent from the same period of 2016.