Russia joins World Trade Organisation
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China.org.cn, December 17, 2011
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Russia joins World Trade Organisation |
Russia won admission to the World Trade Organisation on Friday after 18 years of negotiations, finally gaining full integration into the global economy.
Russia Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina told ministers and trade representatives from all WTO members after the adoption of the accession agreement that it is an event both Russia and the World Community have been waiting for a long time.
"WTO members will get access to a common market of 165 million people (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan),"she said.
Russian lawmakers have six months to ratify the obligations that come with membership.
With global trade talks at an impasse, the highlights of the WTO's biennial ministerial meeting that began yesterday are the accessions of Russia, Samoa and Montenegro and a landmark accord that opens up government-procurement contracts worth as much as US$100 billion to more foreign competition.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday called his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and congratulated him on Russia's accession into the WTO.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said it is a"historic moment for the Russia Federation and for the rule-based Multilateral Trading System."
With the accession of Russia, he said, the WTO will cover over 97 percent of all world trade.
Russia, the world's 11th biggest economy, is the last of the G20 countries to join the WTO and became its 154th member. Russia's entry means the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are now fully represented in the WTO.
The Russian accession agreement contains 30 bilateral agreements on market access for services and 57 on market access for goods. On average, the final legally binding tariff ceiling for Russia will be 7.8 percent compared with a 2011 average of 10 percent for all products.
The average tariff ceiling for agriculture products will be 10.8 percent, lower than the current average of 13.2 percent, while the ceiling average for manufactured goods will be 7.3 percent versus the 9.5 percent average today on manufactured imports.
The final bound rate will be implemented on the date of accession for more than one third of national tariff lines with another quarter of the tariff cuts to be put in place three years later.
The longest implementation period is 8 years for poultry, followed by 7 years for motor cars, helicopters and civil aircraft.
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