Main Issues of the Russian WTO Accession Process

It is not yet known when Russia’s accession process to the WTO will be accomplished. But the experience which has been accumulated during the seven completed WTO accession negotiations and the more than four years activity of the Russian Working Party provide enough material to identify the main issues which will probably play a prominent role in Russia’s accession. In selecting these issues, special attention has been given to the accession conditions of the newly acceded five transition economies, among which three were republics of the former Soviet Union. These conditions reflect the new objectives of the most influential WTO members. Conditions which they are also expected to largely follow in the Russian case. The examination of the main issues concerning the Russian WTO accession will be centred around the three main pillars of the accession protocols, namely commitments on rules; market access concessions and agricultural commitments; and commitments on services. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.