Translated material
"Beautiful, but problematic"
Russia may abandon the idea of joining the WTO through the Customs Union
In the long-term process of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), there has again been a turn, if not 180, then at least 90 degrees. Exactly a month after Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, through the mouth of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, announced the termination of negotiations with this organization individually and joining the WTO “collectively”, within the framework of the as yet uncreated Customs Union, the Russian authorities, it seems, may change their minds . President Dmitry Medvedev at a press conference following the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, said that Russia is still considering the option of individual (albeit agreed upon with the members of the future Customs Union) accession to the WTO. Moreover, he personally likes this path more.Russia’s goal of becoming a member of the international trade club remains, Dmitry Medvedev emphasized, “there should be no doubt.” The question is how best to do this.
“The first way is the entry of the Customs Union, which would be beautiful, but quite problematic, as our colleagues who are leading this process from the WTO tell us. You can join in a different way, having agreed on some common standards and positions within the “troika” of the Customs Union, or join separately, which, in my opinion, is both simpler and more realistic, but while respecting, of course, the rights and interests of other participants, while presence of an agreed position. Then this will even, perhaps, make it possible to enter at different speeds, taking into account how we agreed. But we will, of course, have to defend the positions on which we agree with Kazakhstan and Belarus,” Dmitry Medvedev said in L’Aquila.
As is known, the WTO has still not confirmed its readiness to negotiate with the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and US Secretary of Commerce Harry Locke even expressed confidence that this is simply impossible. “Russia’s proposal for collective accession is impossible. There has never been a case in the history of the WTO when it included an entire bloc rather than individual countries,” believes the head of the US Department of Commerce.
The Russian authorities, having assessed all the pros and cons, began to quickly formulate a more flexible position. On the eve of the president’s statement, his assistant Arkady Dvorkovich spoke with reporters on the same topic. Expert consultations, he said, showed that the entry of the Customs Union into the WTO would be a difficult, multi-year procedure. “Another scenario is the parallel entry of three sovereign states that are members of the Customs Union,” Mr. Dvorkovich said. “We must find an option in which our entry will not drag on for many years,” he explained the main task. Consultations with experts are ongoing. “There is no final decision on the accession scheme, but there are certain advantages with parallel accession,” he said. “We are interested in not slowing down the process.”
True, the question remains what prevented us from consulting with experts before loud statements about joining the Customs Union that had not even come into being. According to an informed source of Vremya Novostei, familiar with the situation when this decision was made, it seems that they forgot that accession to the WTO requires not only the harmonization of customs tariffs, but also the solution of a wide range of issues, such as access to the services market, bringing legislation in accordance with the standards of this organization, protection of intellectual property and many others. That is, those issues that, in principle, cannot be resolved within the framework of any customs union.
Thus, the version that immediately arose among some analysts, that with this statement Russia simply decided to finally push the process of joining to the long-awaited finale, looks more and more realistic. After all, negotiations on the WTO have been ongoing for 14 years - they must end someday.