Russia’s accession to the WTO cleared a major hurdle when the WTO Working Party on its accession approved, ad referendum on 10 November 2011, the package spelling out Russia’s terms of entry to the organization. The Working Party will now send its accession recommendation to the 15 – 17 December Ministerial Conference, where Ministers are expected to approve the documents and accept Russiaas a WTO Member. [1]
All unrestricted WTO documents on accession of Russian Federation.
As part of the accession accord, Russia has agreed to undertake a series of important commitments to further open its trade regime and accelerate its integration in the world economy. The deal offers a transparent and predictable environment for trade and foreign investment.
From the date of accession, the Russian Federationhas committed to fully apply all WTO provisions, with recourse to very few transitional periods (see details below). The Russian Federation’s commitments will include the following:[2]
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Market access for goods
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Market access for services
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Export duties
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General commitments on market access
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Industrial and agricultural subsidies
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Pricing of energy
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Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT)
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Trade-related investment measures
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Protection of trade-related intellectual property
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Transparency
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Functioning of the Custom Union betweenRussia,KazakhstanandBelarus
There is considerable concern about the disparity in incomes in Russia. The richest Russian regions are 67 times richer than the poorest Russian regions in nominal terms and 33 times richer when price differences between the regions are taken into account (World Bank, 2005). The richest regions include the European North, Moscowand the resource rich regions of Siberia and the Far East. The poorest regions include the North Caucuses, Southern Siberia and Central Russia.[3]
All text is reposted Ipsis litteris from its official sources for information purposes only.
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