Global Steel Trade; Structural Problems and Future Solutions

Decrepit Steel Plant in the Urals,” New York Times, July 2, 1992, 1; Tarasenko interview.
113. The bankruptcy law was amended in 1998. However, the main framework of the law remains the same.
114. “Russia Regulation: No closer to a workable bankruptcy procedure,” The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd.
(August 13, 1998).
115. Gustafson, 228.
116. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Transition Report 1999, 259.
117. This is probably equivalent to the imposed “stay” on financial transaction in industrialized economies,
which includes a prohibition on the issuance of new debt. See European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
Transition Report 1999, 161.
118. Craig A. Hart, “Undoing Privatization? Russian Bankruptcy Law and Privatization,” Bankruptcy
Developments Journal, 14 Bank. Dev. J. 311 (1998), 315.
119. “Russia is Entering an Era of Civilized Bankruptcies: As of March 1, Not a Single Debtor Will be Able to
Sleep Peacefully,” Moscow Izvestiya, February 27, 1998; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
Transition Report 1999, 48.
120. Anatoliy Usoltsev, “Business Flourishes Where Law, Not Officials, Rule: At the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical
Combine They Count Money In German And In Japanese,” Moscow Rossiyskaya Gazeta, FBIS.
121. Russia intended to “eliminate the bias in the law towards reorganization rather than liquidation of enterprise,
eliminate court discretion in overruling the creditors’ decision to liquidate the debtor enterprise; and provide for the
participation of the state in bankruptcy proceedings at all stages where relevant for the protection of the public
interest.” Statement of the Government of the Russian Federation, and Central Bank of Russia on Economic Policies,
July 13, 1999, 12. This statement described the policies that Russia intended to implement in the context of its
requirements for financial support from the International Monetary Fund.
122. “Russia Regulations: No closer to a workable bankruptcy procedure,” The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd.
(August 13, 1998), 1.
123. “Alfa Bank To Pay Zapsib Taxes,” Russkiy Telegraf , March 24, 1998; Gleb Kolesnikov, “How the Wealth of
Alfa Is Accruing in Siberia,” Krasnoyarskiy Rabochiy, August 29, 1998; Gleb Pyanykh, “Aman on the Campaign
Trail,” MoscowKommersant-Vlast, June 8, 1999; “Siberian mills resume bankruptcy battles,” Metals Bulletin, January
14, 2000; Igor Lavrenkov, “Nationalization Kuzbass Style. Aman Tuleyev Wants to Become Metallurgy’s King,”
Moscow Segodnya, November 13, 1999.
124. Financial information accessed from Rating Agency “Ekspert PA”, Russian Metallurgy, Part 1–Ferrous
Metallurgy, Moscow, 1999.
125. Id.
126. Unless otherwise noted, this section is based on Metals Bulletin Research Ltd. and InfoMine-CIS, 71–73,
and interviews by Department of Commerce officials with Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Beddows and
Company, Bali Trading, Cargill, Mannesmann, MetalsRussia, Ronly Holdings, Safin, Steel Coils, Thyssen and
TradeArbed (January – March 2000).
127. Celestine Bohlen, “Facing Oblivion, Rust-Belt Giants Top Russian List of Vexing Crises,” The New York
Times Online, November 8, 1998.
128. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Emerging Market Forum, Statement by Nicholas C.
Tolerico (Paris, May 15, 1998), CCNM/EMEF/SC(98)5 and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
News Release, “Co-operation between OECD and Russia and Ukraine in the Steel Sector” (Paris, December 21, 1998), 1.
129. Smirnova, 46.
130. Ibid., 48.
131. The first unilateral EU-wide quota went into effect on January 1, 1993.
132. Commission of the European Communities, Official Journal, No L 005 (August 1, 1996), 25–46.
133. The EU and Russia had already signed an Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation in June 1994 which
normalized trade relations between the two trading partners in nearly every category other than steel.
Under separate agreements, Russia was also entitled to supply 430,000 MT of flat-rolled products and 20,000 MT
of long products to the former German Democratic Republic in 1995 and 450,000 MTof flat and long products in 1996.
Official Journal of the European Communities No L 85/44 (April 19, 1995); European Commission Bulletin of the
European Union 7/8 1996, 104; Marcus and Kirsis, “Russian Steel,” 14.
134. See EU/Russian agreement on trade in certain steel products, Annex II. In November 1999, the EU further
reduced Russia’s steel quota by 20 percent in response to Russian export tariffs on steel scrap.
135. To assist Russian steelmakers move toward European standards in these areas, the EU provides technical
assistance through the Technical Assistance to the CIS (TACIS) program.
Notes 201