The Influence Of Accession To The WTO On Russia’s Economic And Trade Development

Russia’s WTO Accession Protocol entered into force on August22,2012.Russiabecame the WTO ’s156th member state. The WTO is an inevitable choice for Russia’s integration into the world economy. Russia’s WTO accession course lasted18years, the reasons for the long and tortuous course are both Russia’s own domesticmany problems left by a highly centralized planned economy system, and foreignforces obstructionism.There are both advantages and disadvantages to Russia’s economic and tradedevelopment as Accession to the WTO, but overall, more good than harm. On theone hand, the WTO will bring huge benefits to Russia, including:(1) to promotetechnology innovation, change the mode of economic growth;(2) to promoteenterprises to improve efficiency, competitiveness;(3) to attract more foreigninvestment, and promote industrial structure adjustment,(4) to promote the serviceindustry development;(5) to promote the system construction;(6) in gross domesticproduct (GDP) growth advantageous;(7) to expand export,(8) to use of disputesettlement mechanism to protect its interests and participate in the formulation ofWTO rules. On the other hand, the WTO will also bring some negative effects toRussia’s economic development. One is that at the beginning of the Accession to theWTO, some industry long-term protected by government such as agriculture, lightindustry, machinery manufacturing, defense industry, automobile industry, aviationindustry, banking and insurance may be encountered with the huge impact fromforeign counterparts. The second is that according to WTO commitments, Russiawill make domestic oil and gas prices and international price market even, the risingin the price of domestic energy will increase the cost of product, and then may lead to inflation, and make their goods lose international competitiveness, and furtherstrengthen Russia’s economic resource characteristics, adding domestic market’sdepending on the imported goods.Accession to the WTO will have an important impact on Russia’s main industrydevelopment, these industries including energy industry, manufacturing, hightechnology and new technology industry, agriculture and service industry.For Russiaand China’s bilateral trade, Russia’s accession to the WTO is not only an opportunitybut also a great challenge. Opportunities including: with Russia’s accession to theWTO,gradually reduce tariff level, trade between China and Russia will go into thefast lane; Can stimulate mutual investment between China and Russia; Tradebetween the two countries will be increasingly in a normalized way; Is beneficial forChina and Russia to solving trade friction according to international practice; Servicetrade is expected to gradually expand, labor service cooperation strengthens;Regional economic cooperation between China and Russia will further deepen andexpand, and the establishment of a free trade area may be put on the agenda.Challenges include: With the Russian market admittance threshold reducing,competition in Russian daily consumer goods market will be more intense; Russianquality standards on imported agricultural products will be further enhanced; Thedifficulty for China to introduce advanced technology from Russia will increase;Russia will put competitive pressure on Chinese in attracting foreign capital; TheChinese small and medium-sized enterprises on border area which doing businesswith Russian cooperation will face survival pressure.