Translated material
And two and one and a half
Russian officials outlined the timing of the Customs Union's accession to the WTO
Russian officials outlined the next horizons for the country's accession to the World Trade Organization. The Ministry of Economic Development believes that the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will need one and a half to two years to complete negotiations. Moreover, the Customs Union will negotiate on Russian terms. It should be recalled that Russia alone failed to join the WTO in 16 years.“Our opinion is that it is realistic to carry out this entire process within one and a half to two years. This is a calm assessment, without storming. There are no technical obstacles to completing these negotiations; political ones are another matter,” Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Slepnev told reporters yesterday.
Details of the new format of negotiations also became known. The first meeting in Geneva of the single delegation, which will be headed by the director of the department of multilateral negotiations of the Ministry of Economic Development and Chief Russian negotiator Maxim Medvedkov, should take place in mid-October, but the exact date has not yet been determined. At the last meeting of the Customs Union Commission, directives were adopted according to which negotiations will follow the Russian scenario.
“At the same time, certain changes are possible, of course, as a result of the negotiations, but in general, all three parties agreed that Russian negotiation obligations will be taken as the basis,” explained Mr. Slepnev. Thus, Moscow loses nothing. Minsk, in fact, too, since the Belarusian negotiations on the WTO are at the beginning of the road and there are no agreements on the main part of the issues yet. For Astana, we are talking about a certain upward change in its obligations to the WTO.
The single customs tariff, the introduction of which within the framework of the Triple Customs Union is expected from January 1 next year, will lead to a reduction in import tariffs for Russia by an average of 1%, while for Kazakhstan it will increase slightly.
It was also decided not to revoke the mandates of the three countries to negotiate with the WTO. “This will allow each country, in case of successful completion of negotiations, to independently become a member of the WTO,” Mr. Slepnev emphasized. True, even if someone manages to get ahead, he must synchronize all obligations regarding issues that are subject to the norms of the Customs Union. On issues that are not covered by the Customs Union rules, such as access to the financial services market or intellectual property protection, each country has the right to decide as it pleases.
According to the deputy minister, negotiations with the WTO secretariat on such a process took place and “there is a certain understanding on the part of our main trading partners in this regard.” To a reasonable question, what then is the fundamental difference between the new way of conducting negotiations and the old one, the deputy minister replied that the main innovation lies in the synchronization of the negotiation process by the three states.
It should be recalled that many experts linked the decision to join the WTO with a triple alliance with Russia’s desire to finally push the long-drawn negotiations to the long-awaited finale. “I see no reason for such optimism to count on Russia being able to complete all negotiations before the end of the year,” the official admitted. And if this is possible, then “nothing prevents the three of us from completing negotiations just as quickly and effectively, because they are being conducted on the basis of Russian obligations,” he added.