MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - EU sanctions against Russia can lead to a “dangerous spiral” and are thus an “unreliable tool,” the head of German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) Volker Treier told the German Handelsblatt business daily Monday.
“Further sanctions that will most likely touch upon entire sectors [of the economy] are not a reliable tool to solve this political conflict,” Treier said as cited by Handelsblatt.
“They would mostly create a dangerous spiral and provoke response measures in the economic sphere,” he added.
At the same time, Treier didn’t object the sanctions imposed earlier by the European Union on Russia.
“They send a political signal and didn’t significantly affect economic relations between Russia and Europe,” he said.
DIHK head also noted that if case the investigation into the crash of the Malaysian Boeing finds it was Russia’s fault, further sanctions are very likely to be introduced.
“And they would weaken external trade even more, infusing uncertainty into investors and thus freezing global economic activity,” Treier claimed.
Overall, DIHK forecasts the exports of German goods to grow by 4 percent in 2014.
“If there were no conflict between Russia and Ukraine, we would have been able to talk about a 4.5 percent export growth. Further escalation of the crisis might force us to lower the forecast even more,” Treier said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday that the European Union may toughen existing sanctions against Russia if Moscow doesn’t change its stance on Ukraine. He added that further sanctions may focus on advanced industrial goods that might have dual use for defense purposes.
Last week, the US Treasury introduced a so-called Sectoral Sanctions Identification List that affects companies and institutions in defense, energy and banking sectors of the Russian economy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the sanctions required a careful look but warned that the new round of limitations could bring the US-Russian ties to a dead end.
Earlier this year, US and EU have already imposed targeted sanctions against a number of Russian officials and companies over the Ukrainian crisis.
