Russia has formally joined the WTO with the Russian President signing on the legislation that ratified Russia's accession to the WTO. This ended an almost two decade old accession process and brings Russia into the multilateral trading system eleven years after China entered it. The reports of Russia finally joining the WTO are found here, here and here. I had earlier blogged about Russia joining the WTO here, here, here and here.
Apart from the signing of the WTO ratification, President Putin also called on his Russian Olympic Team to "Let London hear the Russian Anthem" in the official Presidential send-off exhorting them to excel in London.
On a lighter note, I was curious to know about who manufactured the national Olympic dress of the Russian team in the light of the controversy about the U.S. Olympic Team's "Made in China" dress, that I had blogged about here. The Russian national dress is manufactured in Russia by a Russian company, Bosco Sport based in Moscow. Thus, no controversy over outsourcing of Russia's Olympic dress to China though a murmur about a U.S. company American Apparel being offered the deal was doing the rounds here and here.
Just to add colour to the debate, I researched further on China's official national dress for the Olympics - it was perhaps made in China but sponsored by a U.S. company - Nike. Truly globalized world indeed.
As one commentator rightly put it:
"Oddly enough, the Olympics exist as a place where nations can compete — and compete furiously — in place of real world disputes. One sentiment yet to be expressed, that the two nations just settle it in the field/court/pool/track."
Who would have imagined that the Olympics would be the next stage for globalisation and its tensions to take over?
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