Bone across the throat

Poland may block Russia's accession to the WTO

The problem of supplying Polish meat to Russia is gaining increasing geopolitical scope. Warsaw was unable to turn the situation around, even blocking work on the preparation of a new comprehensive Russia-European Union agreement. The intercession of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the recent Russia-EU summit in Samara also did not lead to visible results. Therefore, President Lech Kaczynski is looking for another pain point to put pressure on. He threatened Russia with blocking its entry into the World Trade Organization if a compromise was not found on the issue of supplies of Polish meat. But a compromise is not yet in sight.

“If Russia maintains an uncompromising position, as it has done so far, I cannot rule out such a turn of events. Although we are not moving toward confrontation,” Mr. Kaczynski said. And Radek Sikorski, who until recently was the Minister of National Defense of Poland, called on the European Union to show solidarity and abandon the construction of the North European gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe.

Moscow has not officially commented on these statements . However, it can hardly be explained by mere chance that the meat issue came up again at the traditional Monday meeting between President Vladimir Putin and members of the government. Formally, the discussion was about improving the organization of the meat industry. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that on Wednesday he will visit Kursk, where he will discuss issues related to meat production. “Meat is not of a high enough standard everywhere. In particular, sometimes imported products are not of the best quality. Its origin is questionable,” Mr. Medvedev said.

True, Polish meat has not been supplied to Russia since November 2005. So these remarks do not seem to directly apply to him. On the other hand, it was precisely because of the identified facts of re-export, that is, sales under the guise of their own products purchased in third countries, that the Russian veterinary service blocked Polish supplies. So these statements, coupled with the words that from now on they will rely on Russian products, do not leave Poland with much hope that the situation will change for the better. And in fact, all she can do is act at the political level.

True, the question of whether Warsaw will be able to convince its colleagues in the European Union to close the door to the WTO in Russia’s face remains open. The European Union has already suffered from the fact that Warsaw used its veto power and blocked the start of negotiations on a new agreement. The current one expires in 2007. In addition, the new agreement plans to pay great attention to the topic of energy, in which European countries, which are still critically dependent on Russian energy supplies, are extremely interested.

However, intra-European solidarity may trump considerations of economic expediency. European Commission spokesman Peter Power reminded yesterday that support for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization is not automatic. “The European Union supports Russia’s accession, but not at any cost. Bilateral problems and laxity in fulfilling current obligations are becoming serious obstacles,” he said.

Poland is not the first country that has tried to threaten Russia by blocking its accession to the WTO. Previously, Georgia resorted to the same tactics after the introduction of Russian economic sanctions against it.

Vera SITNINA