Experts: not only Georgia interferes with Russia's entry into the WTO

Negotiations on joining the WTO Russia have been conducting the second ten years. Moscow hopes to complete the process by the middle of the summer of 2011. Today, Georgia remains the only country opposing the entry of Russia to the WTO. The prospects of production in the Russian Federation in the context of the upcoming entry of Russia in the WTO were at the conference "Modern Business in Russia" organized by the BusinessFM radio station and Bfm.ru business portal.

The leading researcher at the Trade Policy Institute, Alexei Portan, at the conference, recalled that in 2009 Russia was more closely close to joining the WTO, but then the plans of the Russian government changed.

The post -fact of the authorities stated that the non -performance was a successful step - since, as a member of the WTO, Russia would have experienced a crisis much worse.

According to Portan, now the process of joining the WTO is also delayed. However, he is sure, the main reason lies not in the position of Georgia, which opposes the accession of Russia to the organization. The expert believes that this is due to the fact that the main document regulating Russia's accession to the WTO was significantly changed, and, in fact, a new one is required.

"This document was called the" report of the working group on the accession of Russia to the WTO. "It has been prepared since 2003. It reflects the trade and political regime of the country that has been joining. But we have changed this regime in connection with the creation of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, because we have adopted a number of documents. Therefore, the partners said:" Gentlemen, look, we would have been ready to accept you. And now everything has changed for you, ”the expert said.

According to Portan, out of 42 sections of the report, 30 are subject to processing. That is, in early June 2009, this document was almost ready, and since September 2010, our delegation was forced to negotiate again with the WTO on the coordination of almost three quarters of this report in connection with the accession to the Customs Union.

Representatives of domestic business are not pleasing to the prospect of joining the WTO. Vice President of Rospstitssoyuz, Senator Sergey Lisovsky is sure that "there is no economy in Russia's accession to the WTO, this is a pure policy."

At the same time, he pessimisticly evaluates the future of Russian manufacturers within the WTO: “We will simply be broken there. We have decisions on the state support of one or another sector of the economy for years, while we need to act very quickly. Our system is too slow, and officials are not able to work effectively. Yes, and it is difficult to call them officials - so, the courtiers are lazy,” Lisovsky said. He is firmly convinced that the entry into the WTO "will be the end of our entire industry."

Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Institute of Globalization Problems, agrees that Russia has much less economic motives for Russia when joining the WTO. The expert noted the fact that Russia is not undergoing training and marketers of proper qualifications, although "in the WTO, the main thing is the mechanisms of conducting trade disputes."

Igor Nikolaev, director of the Department of Strategic Analysis of the FBC, believes that in order for the Russian market to be competitive (and this is the necessary component within the framework of the WTO), it is necessary to develop competition within the country. This will inevitably help increase market efficiency. Now the competition is extremely low.

Answering the question of what prevents the development of competition, the director of the Department of Strategic Analysis of the FBC cited statistical data, according to which more than 50% of cases initiated in accordance with the Law on Protection of Competition, are cases of authorities.

“If the authorities are“ a strangler ”of competition, then they are primarily interested in this. So, this is in their interests, so that only part of the allocated funds to business is allowed, and the rest is clear where,” Nikolaev said. “Only administrative reform can help in this situation, and not ostentatious, but real.”