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Director of the Department for Trade Negotiations of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Medvedkov was a keynote speaker of the event. In his speech he highlighted the features of the trade liberalization regime established by the TPP, as well as additional terms in a number of areas, from agriculture and ecology to investment and intellectual property rights. Maxim Medvedkov presented the results of the comparison between the TPP provisions and a trade regime terms based on the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. He stressed that despite the presence of clear regulations in a number of innovative areas the TPP is unlikely to lead to a formation of a game changing trade and investment regime. At the same time the TPP initiative could transform and evolve in the foreseeable future. In this regard, according to Maxim Medvedkov, Russia should keep an eye on the TPP development, working actively to strengthen the WTO rules for regional trade agreements and using its own potential for negotiations at the global scene to promote its agenda.
Executive Secretary of the RSPP Committee on Integration, Trade and Customs Policy and WTO Pavel Isaev, who addressed the participants after Maxim Medvedkov, emphasized the importance of business-government engagement on trade policy issues. He noted that initially the TPP will produce very limited direct impact on Russia`s economy but drew the participants’ attention to the potential competitive risks to the Russian businesses due to improving of business environment in the TPP participating economies in innovative sectors, such as biotechnologies and e-commerce. According to Pavel Isaev, these challenges could be addressed by implementing a number of innovative provisions of the TPP Agreement in the Russian legislation.
During the discussion the participants exchanged views on prospects and risks of joining alternative trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific, changing conditions for the Russian business at the markets participating in the TPP, possible ways of the TPP norms proliferation within the WTO as well as Russia`s role and position in future regional and global trade and investment landscape.