Vsego Dobrogo (All the Best) Russia!

Russia finally is the 156th member of the multilateral trading system bringing to an end 18 years of negotiation. News of the membership trickled in here, here, here and here. Various analysis and comparisons with China are beginning to be made. Will russia take advantage of the WTO as China did? Will WTO be the magic wand that Russia will use to boost it's economy as China did? i have earlier blogged about Russia's entry here, here and here.

The WTO website has a detailed table on the progress of the accession process from June 1993 to December 2011.

1.	Application Received	June 1993
2.	Working Party Established	16-17 June 1993
3.	Memorandum	1 March 1994 (Goods) 27 October 1995 (TRIMs) 21 November 1995 25 October 1995 (Services) 25 October 1995 (TRIPS) 7 April 1997 9 April 1997
4.	Questions and Replies	2 June 1995
5.	Meetings of the Working Party	17-19 July and 4-6 December 1995 30-31 May and 15 October 1996 15 April, 22-23 July and 9-10 December 1997 29-30 July and 16-17 December 1998 25-26 May and 18-19 December 2000 26-27 June 2001 23-24 January, 25 April, 20 June and 16 December 2002 10 January, 6 March, 10 April, 10 July and 30 October 2003 5 February, 2 April, 16 July and 8 November 2004 17 February, 15 April, 24 June and 19 October 2005 23 March 2006 10 November 2011
6.	Other Documentation
	(a) Additional Questions & Replies	24 January 2005
	(b) Information on agriculture (WT/ACC/4)	18 March 2008
	(c) Information on services (WT/ACC/5)	25 October 1995
	(d) SPS/TBT checklists (WT/ACC/8)	10 July 1997 (TBT) 11 July 2011 (SPS)
	(e) TRIPS checklist (WT/ACC/9)	25 October 2000
	(f) Legislative Action Plan	14 August 2007
7.	Market Access Negotiations
	Goods (a) initial Offer (b) Goods Schedule	16 February 1998 17 November 2011
	Services (a) initial Offer (b) Services Schedule	8 October 1999 17 November 2011
8.	Accession Package Approved by the Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference (December 2011)
	Working Party Report Goods Schedule Services Schedule	17 November 2011 17 November 2011 17 November 2011

An interesting aspect of Russia's entry would be to analyze the impact of the protocol of accession on Russia's commitments. We have seen that the Chinese accession protocol uncharacteristically ran into more than 500 pages providing for WTO plus obligations for China which was reflected in disputes over export restrictions imposed by China.A look at the Russia's accession protocol gives a different picture. It is a brief document and does not seem to have similar provisions like China.However it refers to paragraph 1450 of the Working party report wherein Russia has agreed to specific commitments. Para 1450 of the Working party report states:

"1450.The Working Party took note of the explanations and statements of the Russian Federation concerning its foreign trade regime, as reflected in this Report.  The Working Party took note of the commitments by the Russian Federation in relation to certain specific matters which are reproduced in paragraphs 34, 72, 99, 115, 116, 117, 132, 133, 183, 209, 214, 215, 227, 251, 275, 302, 313, 319, 323, 324, 337, 351, 352, 353, 364, 366, 369, 382, 392, 417, 424, 472, 476, 477, 480, 481, 483, 486, 487, 497, 514, 527, 548, 562, 566, 574, 591, 613, 620, 638, 668, 669, 677, 698, 712, 714, 715, 719, 728, 738, 739, 744, 745, 756, 761, 765, 772, 773, 784, 785, 787, 789, 798, 799, 803, 804, 813, 826, 844, 847, 870, 875, 876, 880, 885, 890, 893, 895, 901, 904, 908, 923, 926, 927, 928, 932, 935, 936, 944, 950, 952, 955, 981, 984, 989, 1009, 1011, 1030, 1031, 1033, 1035, 1051, 1055, 1060, 1062, 1089, 1090, 1122, 1124, 1137, 1143, 1144, 1161, 1186, 1187, 1189, 1200, 1208, 1218, 1224, 1226, 1232, 1253, 1260, 1271, 1277, 1294, 1295, 1303, 1312, 1325, 1331, 1338, 1339, 1350, 1353, 1392, 1393, 1395, 1397, 1398, 1400, 1401, 1402, 1404, 1405, 1406, 1413, 1426, 1427, 1428, 1430 and 1449.  The Working Party took note that these commitments had been incorporated in paragraph 2 of the Protocol of Accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO."

Now, these are a lot of paragraphs and commitments and the devil is always in the details. One would have to make a more detailed analysis about whether Russia has agreed to onerous "WTO plus" commitments like China. Further, a dispute (now that Russia is a member its trade measures would be open to scrutiny under the DSM) would bring to the fore such commitments as in the case of China.A synopsis of Russia's commitments under the WTO have been provided here.

One would have to wait and see how Russia faces the multilateral challenge, what impact it's accession protocol will have on its WTO commitments, how engaging with the international trade network would benefit it's exporters and importers and how other countries would engage with Russia in the multilateral forum.

All we can say is "всего хорошего" (Vsego dobrogo) meaning "All the Best" in Russian!