The Russian Federation remains one of the few major
countries outside the World Trade Organization.
Nearly all the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe have joined. Among
the former Soviet republics, Estonia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, and
Lithuania have all acceded while Armenia, and Moldova are expected to join them shortly.
Although Russia has made significant economic, political,
and administrative progress in its accession to the WTO, the Russian government
must prepare to overcome critical obstacles that lie ahead in order to make
accession a reality. This web site provides specific guidance regarding three
major barriers to Russian accession:
Each section
provides an analysis of existing and expected impediments to
accession and recommended strategies for overcoming them.
In addition to our primary analysis, we provide an overview
of both the accession process and the benefits
of Russian accession.
We recommend that The Russian Federation comply with all
the requirements for WTO accession. The WTO administers international trade
agreements, is the most important forum for trade negotiations, handles
trade disputes between trading partners, monitors national trade policies, gives
technical assistance and training for developing countries, and cooperates with
other international organizations. All of this reveals the importance of
accession to the WTO.
During the process of WTO accession negotiations, the Russian
government should continue pursuing the creation of a free-trade zone
among all CIS countries over the coming two years. However, the process
must comply fully with WTO rules on free trade areas and must be treated
as a prelude and not an alternative to WTO accession.
On the question of intellectual property rights, the Russian government
should grant exclusive jurisdiction over these issues to the existing
system of arbitration courts, implement training programs for judiciary
and law enforcement officials, and establish a consulting body that would
serve as a forum for relevant public, private and international
organizations to provide input on the development of intellectual property
rights in Russia. In the international arena, Russia must assure prompt
and comprehensive notification to the World Trade Organization of recent
developments in Russian intellectual property rights legislation and
support the demands of other acceding countries for more time for
complying with WTO rules on intellectual property rights.
In negotiations with US officials, crucial for WTO accession, Russia
should prepare for the introduction of trade remedy issues during
accession negotiations by: (1) understanding basic U.S. trade remedy law;
(2) being able to state Russia’s position on these issues; and (3) being
willing to compromise. While the United States will undoubtedly seek
concessions on two trade remedy fronts—non-market economy status and
selective safeguards, Russia must not let these issues block its ultimate
accession. Nevertheless, Russia has a strong case for ending NME status
and should clearly and forcefully state this position. However, Russia
needs to prepare itself to offer a degree of compromise. Likewise, Russia
should not let the prospect of WTO non-application with the United States
(due to the Jackson-Vanik law) impede its accession negotiations.
