Russia lines up for WTO

Russia first applied to join the WTO back in 1993

By BBC World Business reporter, Mark Gregory

Now that China has finally joined the World Trade Organisation after 14 years of talks, Russia is the only major world power left outside. But there are signs that momentum behind Moscow's bid for entry is building fast.

Just this week the WTO's director general Mike More predicted that Russia would become a member within three years.

The European Union's most senior trade official, Pascal Lamy, made a similar comment a few days before.

Times change

Certainly attitudes have shifted since the Soviet era, when Moscow regarded the WTO as an instrument of imperialist exploitation.

Russia in fact first applied to join the WTO back in 1993, though in the later Yeltsin years talks were allowed to drift.

President Putin has recently given the issue a much higher priority, as part of what seems to be a more general policy of improving links with America and the West.

However, formidable obstacles still remain.

Moscow has strong objections to rules that would give WTO officials the right to vet domestic legislation affecting trade before discussions in the Russian parliament.

To the clear the way for WTO entry, Moscow would also need to make major changes to its system of state support for agriculture, allow greater foreign participation in the oil and gas industries, and to cut tariff levels.

However, experts say it is possible that Russia's membership will be agreed much more quickly than was the case for China.

While Beijing battled for years for the easy terms accorded to developing countries, Russia wants to join on the basis that it is already an advanced industrial power.

That implies a readiness to accept the full rigour of WTO rules obliging member states to open up their economies.