Russia Might Enter the Wrong WTO
// The Doha Round of trade talks was reanimated
During the World Economic Forum in Davos, trade ministers of 30 countries delivered a joint declaration of resuming the Doha Round of trade talks under the World Trade Organization (WTO), which had been frozen in July 2006. If those talks are successful, Russia, that intends to enter the WTO in 2007, will have to put its name to their results. The failure of the Doha Round, which stands for liberalizing the markets of agricultural products and services, is a threat to the WTO’s existence.
The only worthy result of Davos economic forum-2007 is the decision of 30 trade ministers to resume the Doha Round talks and thus to determine the WTO’s future. Disagreements between WTO countries have not been solved yet. Both developing and developed member states set their own demands to each other.
Moscow doesn’t need the Doha talks to end in 2007, before it has officially joined the WTO. If the talks are successful, Russia will be obliged to carry out the package of laws accepted as a necessary part of the WTO’s functioning.
If Russia joins the WTO before the Doha talks are over, developing countries will have one more vote on their side. If the negotiators do not reach agreement by the end of 2007, the WTO’s further existence will boil down to trade wars masked by appeals to WTO courts, and Russia will have to take active part in them.
Alexei Shapovalov
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 30, 2007
|
