Trade organization welcomes Russia

GENEVA

Protesters against the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization hold banners on Dec 16 in Geneva, where the body approved Russia’s 18-year bid later.

The World Trade Organization on Friday gave its second and final approval for Russia’s membership in the trade body after a record 18-year quest to join.

“The ministerial conference so agrees,” said Nigerian Trade Minister Olusegun Aganga, who is chair of the eighth WTO ministerial conference. 

The Russian parliament will have up to June 15 next year to ratify the accord and bring it into force.
Moscow’s lead negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said earlier he expected the deal to be ratified “early next year.”

Russia applied to join the trade body in 1993 but talks dragged on and its brief war with Georgia in 2008 further delayed its application.

No other country has had to bargain so long before being granted entry. China was the previous record holder with 15 years of negotiations for membership.

Moscow cleared its last hurdle for WTO accession when it finally clinched in November a deal with last hold-out Georgia, which was able to veto any accession bid by virtue of its membership to the trade body. 

In all, Russia sealed 30 bilateral agreements on market access for services and 57 on access for goods in order to secure the green light from other WTO states.

For the overall package, Moscow agreed to cut its tariff ceiling from the 2011 average of 10 percent for all products to 7.8 percent.

The average tariff ceiling for agricultural products is cut to 10.8 percent from 13.2 percent currently, with manufactured goods at 7.3 percent, down from 9.5 percent.

Russia also agreed to limit farm subsidies to $9 billion (6.9 billion euros) in 2012 and to gradually reduce them to $4.4 billion by 2018.

Commenting on Russia’s membership during the conference, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said, “This is clearly a historic moment for the Russian Federation and the rule-based multilateral system after an 18-year marathon.” 

“The accession of Russia to the WTO will cement the integration of the Russian Federation into the world economy and will bring greater certainty to business operators and trading partners,” he said. 
Compiled from AFP and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff in Istanbul.