Brussels, 24/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 23 July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Russia's protocol of accession to the WTO, approved at the end of December 2011 by the multilateral trade organisation's member states, then ratified by the lower House of the Russian parliament, the Duma, on 10 July and the upper Chamber, the State Council, on 18 July.
After 18 years of toilsome negotiations, Russia, the world's ninth largest economy with a GDP of almost $1,900 billion, will, in one month's time, become the 156th member of the WTO. In order to become part of this organisation, Russia agreed to a series of commitments seeking to further open up its trade regime and speed up its integration into the global economy. For goods, its final tariff ceiling will be 7.8% compared with 10% on average for all goods at present, the ceiling for agricultural products will be 10% rather than the current 13.2% and for industrial goods, it will be 7.3% compared with 9.5% (for closer detail on the commitments, see EUROPE 10493). (EH/transl.rt)