Russia on November 10 cleared the last major obstacle in its 18-year effort to join the World Trade Organization in what the head of the institution called a milestone for global trade.
“It’s a victory for Russia, a victory for W.T.O. members, and a victory for the W.T.O.,”the official, Pascal Lamy, director general of the organization, said by telephone after a panel at the group’s headquarters in Geneva cleared the final terms of Russia’s entry. Only the formality of approval next month at a meeting of W.T.O. national trade ministers remains.
Russia’s trade negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, said during a news conference that China’s economic performance since it joined in 2001 had helped to convince Moscow of the importance of getting a deal.
“China’s accession really boosted trade and investment, and it was one of the factors that were taken into account in our decision making when we decided to join and to complete these negotiations,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The agreement was made possible after Russia finally overcame a thorny dispute with Georgia tied to commerce with the breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In that agreement, brokered by Switzerland, the neighbors agreed that a neutral company would monitor trade between them.
Joining the W.T.O. crowns a long period of transformation for Russia, which first applied for membership in June 1993 under the late President Boris N. Yeltsin, and marks its arrival as an up-and-coming “BRIC” country, referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China. To win W.T.O. entry, Moscow has had to overhaul its national laws to bring them into conformity with the global trade regime as well as work out bilateral market-opening deals with all the members of the body.
Mr. Lamy said Russia had “broken the Chinese record of 15 years” needed to join the organization because Moscow was not originally convinced of the advantages of membership.
“If you look at the structure of the Russian economy, it’s understandable,” he said, pointing to the country’s heavy reliance on petroleum exports. “The benefits were not that obvious until they took the strategic decision to diversify their economy.”
Mr. Lamy, a Frenchman whose tenure at the W.T.O. runs through 2013, also warned that global leaders needed to be vigilant about defending free trade as growth slows and the financial crisis in Europe threatens to spread, saying: “Substantial protectionism is the only dog that hasn’t barked since 2008.”
He said he was concerned that the second wave of the crisis might prove more dangerous than the first, because national leaders lacking the fiscal and monetary instruments they employed when the first round broke might be tempted to restrict imports in a misguided effort to save jobs.
“This is a dangerous situation for trade,” he said. “You still have people on this planet who believe protectionism protects something.”
The W.T.O. deal approved will reduce the tariff ceiling for Russia to 7.8 percent from a 2011 average of 10 percent for all products. It reduces the maximum tariff on farm goods to 10.8 percent from 13.2 percent, and cuts the ceiling average for manufactured goods to 7.3 percent from 9.5 percent.
Andrew Somers, president the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, said in a statement that W.T.O. membership made Russia “more attractive to foreign investors and American businesses considering the Russian market. For American companies already operating in Russia, it provides a stronger, more rule-based playing field for operations, as well as improved access and competitiveness on this market.”
Another 26 countries are currently negotiating to join the W.T.O., but Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a member of the Group of 8 leading countries was by far the most important still outside the global trade regime, which seeks to reduce barriers to international commerce and provides a forum for resolving disputes. Mr. Lamy said Vanuatu and Montenegro will also be joining with Russia, while Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Ethiopia are the next large countries he hopes will be able to join.
“We’ll try to find a few low-hanging fruit to pick,” he said, “assuming we can agree on the definition of low-hanging.”