Russia's WTO Accession Package Advances, Membership Expected Soon
The World Trade Organization reports that after 18 years of negotiation, Russia’s accession to the WTO cleared a major hurdle on November 10, 2011 when the WTO Working Party on its accession approved the package spelling out Russia’s terms of entry to the organization. The Working Party will now send its accession recommendation to the December 15-17, 2011 Ministerial Conference, where Ministers are expected to approve the documents and accept Russia as a WTO Member. According to the WTO, if Russia ratifies the accession package, full-fledged membership is expected by July 2012.
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Highlights of Accession Package
As part of the accession, Russia concluded 30 bilateral agreements on market access for services and 57 on market access for goods. Russia has also agreed to undertake a series of commitments to further open its trade regime and accelerate its integration in the world economy.
The following are highlights of the Accession Package:
- Few transitional periods. From the date of accession, the Russian Federation has committed to fully apply all WTO provisions, with recourse to very few transitional periods.
- Average tariff ceiling of 7.8%. On average, the final legally binding tariff ceiling for the Russian Federation will be 7.8% compared with a 2011 average of 10% for all products.
- TRQs for beef, poultry, pork, whey products. Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) would be applied to beef, pork, poultry and some whey products. Imports entering the market within the quota will face lower tariffs while higher duties will be applied to products imported outside the quota.
- Bound export duties. Export duties would be bound for over 700 tariff lines, including certain products in the sectors of fish and crustaceans, mineral fuels and oils, raw hides and skins, wood, pulp and paper and base metals.
- Customs union notifications. The Custom Union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus was created on January 1, 2010, and all customs borders were removed between the three countries on July 1, 2011. Russia would publish any Custom Union legislation before adoption and would provide a reasonable period of time for WTO members and all stakeholders to comment to the competent Custom Union Body.
- Quantitative restrictions eliminated. Quantitative restrictions on imports, such as quotas, bans, permits, prior authorization requirements, licensing requirements or other requirements or restrictions that could not be justified under the WTO provisions would be eliminated and not (re) introduced.
- Government procurement. The Russian Federation intends to join the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and would notify this intention to the WTO Government Procurement Committee at the time of accession.
- Industrial subsidies. The Russian Federation would eliminate all its industrial subsidies programs or modify them so that any subsidy provided would not be contingent upon exportation or upon the use of domestic over imported goods.
- Agricultural subsidies. The total trade distorting agricultural support would not exceed USD 9 billion in 2012 and would be gradually reduced to USD 4.4 billion by 2018.
- IPR protection. The Russian Federation would fully apply the provisions of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights including provisions for enforcement, without recourse to any transitional period.
Russia Likely to Be WTO Member by July 2012
If WTO ministers adopt Russia's accession package as expected, the Russian Federation will have until June 15, 2012 to ratify its accession package. Thirty days after the notification to the WTO of the ratification, the Russian Federation would become a fully-fledged member.
President Obama's statement available here.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce statement available here.