Shokhin: Russian Business Has Played by WTO Rules All Along

RSPP Board members Alexei Mordashov (‘Severstal’) Viktor Vekselberg (‘Renova’), Anatoly Chubays (‘RosNano’), Ivan Obolentsev (Agro-Industrial Union), Valentin Gapanovich (‘Russian Railways’), Mikhail Pogosyan (United Aircraft Corporation), Vadim Shvetsov (‘Sollers’) and others looked at Russia’s commitments in its accession to the WTO and their implications for domestic industry. The meeting was attended by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina and Russia’s chief WTO negotiator Maxim Medvedkov.

RSPP President Alexander Shokhin said: “Every single aspect of our accession has been nothing but unprecedented. With its 18 years of negotiations, Russia is an all-time champion in WTO accession”.

For the first time in its modern history, Russia’s membership in an international organization has become the focus of so much debate. Mr. Shokhin said: “Russian business community was involved in the WTO accession process from its earliest stages. We had a special WTO accession taskforce set up by the RSPP (chaired by an RSPP Bureau member, CEO of ‘Severstal’ Alexei Mordashov) which was later transformed into the Committee for Trade & Customs Policies and WTO serving as a platform to discuss WTO accession.”

Some spheres have had to be developed almost from scratch (anti-dumping laws), others have required a dramatic and cohesive transformation (foreign trade and customs laws, technical regulations, sanitary and quarantine norms, government procurement, IP etc.).

Said Mr. Shokhin, “My bottom line is that most requirements have been already implemented in our laws, and Russian businesses has been actually playing by the WTO rules all these years. So I don’t think WTO membership can come as a shock to Russian businesses.”

“Коль скоро вопрос с нашим членством в ВТО has been agreed, what remains is to carefully look into the package of terms and conditions. After that, the first idea is to learn to employ WTO mechanisms in the most efficient way.”

RSPP PR