Page 60 - TURKRptJun22

60 I Eastern Europe bne June 2022
Russia's participation in the WTO has been lukewarm at best, with arguments over sanctions undermining efforts to reduce barriers to trade since 2014. Image: bne IntelliNews.
Russia may leave the WTO and WHO. In practice, it never really joined
Theo Normanton
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told Parliament to discuss the country’s future membership of a list of international organisations, including the World Trade Organisation and the World Health Organisation.
Pyotr Tolstoy, the Speaker of the State Duma, announced the discussions, saying that “Russia left the Council
of Europe, now it’s the turn of the WTO and WHO, which have neglected all their obligations towards Russia,” (quotation from Interfax).
In practice, however, Russia has never really participated in the World Trade Organisation. It joined in 2012 at the culmination of a period of market
www.bne.eu
liberalisation and moves towards greater integration with the West. In spite of the assertion by former WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy that Russia “will undoubtedly strengthen the multilateral trading system”,
it ended up being a member of the organisation only in name.
In response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, western nations introduced sanctions on Russia. The
counter-sanctions adopted by Russia were decried by other members of
the organisation as a breach of WTO rules. In particular, Russia was accused of obfuscating import tariffs and implementing restrictions on trade with Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova and the US.
Russia, meanwhile, complained that western sanctions breached WTO rules. Ever since, Russia’s adherence to WTO
“Former WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said that Russia “will undoubtedly strengthen the multilateral trading system”, it ended up being
a member of the organisation only in name”