Russian WTO membership welcome, says former ambassador

Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland: photo - EPA

“Russia's membership will be beneficial and not only to Poland […] there are benefits for both sides,” Stanisław Ciosek, who was Poland's ambassador to Russia and the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1996, has told Polish Radio.

“I would say the main idea behind Russia's membership of the World Trade Organisation is to introduce some order there,” he added.

“The WTO is a collection of economic and business rules and behaviours. Members of the WTO pledge to abide by those rules, which in turn, makes dealing with them more predictable and they are more reliable partners.”

When the Russian Federation officially joined the World Trade Organization on Wednesday, it became 156th member and ends accession ends 18 years of negotiations.

Tariffs will be dropped for Russian exports to other member states but it will also force Russia to remove its own levies on imports, exposing local businesses to foreign competition.

The result will be an increase in trade for Moscow: but state aid to struggling sectors of its economy will be phased out over seven years, threatening many sectors.

Russia was the biggest economy in the world outside the WTO and first applied to join the global trade group in June 1993, two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia is the third largest trading partner with the European Union after the United States and China, so the 27-member bloc is expected to benefit from its accession to WTO. (pg/di)