Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Despite a promising modernisation plan put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia is not respecting its commitments to the WTO, laments European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht.
Stressing that accession to the WTO is only “the beginning” of the process of its economic reform, De Gucht called on Russia, at a seminar organised by the Liberal Group of the European Parliament on Wednesday 5 December, to “go further” in its modernisation efforts to remedy weaknesses with the rule of law, reinforce its financial system, promote innovation, attract foreign investment and build infrastructure. By these means it will be able to meet the “numerous challenges” facing it, particularly the diversification of its economy, which is still highly dependent on income from hydrocarbons and mining activities. “Russia needs to embrace the spirit of open, competitive markets as well as the letter of WTO law. Only that way can dependence on the roulette wheel of global commodity prices be reduced”, De Gucht stressed.
Although he welcomes the modernisation plan promised by Putin, which aims to create 25 million jobs in the high-technology industries between now and 2020, increase work productivity by 50% in six years and bring Russia into the top 20 of the World Bank's business classification, De Gucht voiced concerns at the progress made by Russia on the trade front. Three months after the yellow card it was shown in September, the De Gucht lamented a lack of progress on several dossiers. “We have also seen several examples of recent action by the government that present a less encouraging outlook. In these areas - far from using its new membership of the WTO as a tool for broader reform - Russia is not even meeting its commitments”, he said, referring to the Russian decree on recycling costs for imported cars, the ban on imports of live animals from Europe, the Russian decision to increase the level of customs duty on hundreds of imported products and keeping in place high procedural costs to export wood at lower duties, as provided for by a bilateral agreement prior to WTO accession. “We want to see these issues resolved as soon as possible”, De Gucht warned, stressing that he preferred a negotiated solution, but that he did not rule out recourse to the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism.
Agreement on wood officially validated. On 3 December, the Council adopted a regulation on the allocation of tariff quotas applied to exports of Russian wood to the EU. The European Parliament gave its green light on 21 November to the fourth bilateral agreement accompanying the accession of Russia to the WTO (see EUROPE 10735). (EH/transl.fl)