Brussels, 15/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - After blowing hot and cold through 2009 on its accession to the WTO and the increase in some of its customs duties in response to the global crisis, Russia is putting forward a new face in spring 2010. Talking to the media in Brussels on Wednesday 14 April, following meetings with European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and European business representatives, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, presented an image of a Russian government seeking to be constructive in its handling of controversial trade issues. Shuvalov promised a reduction in a number of Russian import duties that were increased last year because of the crisis, once the process of Russia's accession to the WTO is completed. Moscow is determined that that should be before the end of this year.
Shuvalov defended the increases in customs duties on the import of motor cars, metals and agricultural machinery during the global economic crisis in 2009. Hard-hit, Russia saw its GDP dive by 8.8% last year. These “anti-crisis regulation measures” were meant to help Russian firms maintain jobs during an “unstable period”. The Russian government intends to keep these measures in place for the moment, but it promises to amend them as soon as economic recovery is safe. “We understand that, legally, we will be legally obliged to decrease the tariffs when we finalise our WTO accession,” he acknowledged. “Before then, it would be difficult for us, almost impossible, to decrease the tariffs because it would not be easy to explain to the Russian people,” he added.
Shuvalov said that Russia was currently in discussions with the EU and the United States on ways of speeding up negotiations on WTO accession. “We have received very good support from the EU and positive signals from the US administration,” he said. Visiting Washington on Tuesday, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev pressed the Obama administration to do all it could to help Russia join the WTO as quickly as possible. There are expected to be meetings in the coming months to allow the Americans and Russians to iron out differences that are holding up the process.
Shuvalov also shed fresh light on whether Russia would seek accession on its own or as part of a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, with Moscow still favouring the second option. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister revealed that the presidents of the three countries would meet in Astana on 5 July to “decide the most appropriate scenario for accession to the WTO”.
No matter how Russia joins the WTO, Shuvalov said his country wanted to bring the process, which began in 1993, to a successful conclusion. This is a positive sign after the often contradictory signals sent by the Russian authorities over the last few years, and the strong reservations expressed by Russian business circles. “Without WTO access, modernisation and innovation will be very dificult,” Shuvalov acknowledged. Foreign investors, too, looking for better guarantees of transparency and legal predictability in Russia, also want the accession. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister also showed Russia as a country ready to cooperate to settle trade disputes related to WTO accession talks. He promised the EU that a reduction in differentiated export tariffs on timber would be implemented immediately WTO accession negotiations were finalised. This issue is a real source of discord between Brussels and Moscow. Successive increases, of up to 80% of the customs value of the timber, imposed by the Russian authorities in these duties since 2007 have had a massive effect on the Finnish and Swedish forestry industries. (E.H./transl.rt)