Russia proves her worth through WTO

PanARMENIAN.Net - Official Tbilisi, to her credit be it said, fought a last-ditch fight so as not to allow Russia into the WTO, even knowing she would lose. The whole affair unfolded against the backdrop of Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, territories that Georgia still considers her own. Russia started negotiations on WTO accession back in 1993. However, in late April 2008, Georgia withdrew from the talks in protest against the order of the Russian president to lift the economic sanctions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia. After the “five-day war” in August 2008, Tbilisi broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow, declaring Abkhazia and South Ossetia occupied territories. Since then, Tbilisi has refused Moscow’s membership in the WTO. But in March 2011, negotiations were resumed through intermediary of Switzerland and, as we can see, they were crowned with success. According to the U.S. Department of State Spokeswoman, Victoria Newland, the United States welcomes the bilateral agreement between Russia and Georgia.

Thus, Russia signed a deal with Georgia that removed the last major obstacle to Moscow's membership. The deal essentially involved a neutral company monitoring all trade between the two nations, including the breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. As we can see, Georgia is still trying to present the issue of Russia’s membership in the WTO as political. It’s clear that Tbilisi should not think of a serious monitoring; she simply wants to show her capacity to control the territory of long breakaway republics. By the way, these republics split off not without the “help” of Georgia. But for the war in Abkhazia in 1991, everything could have been the other way round. It is also worth noting that the Georgian russophobia is just fabricated and intended for external use. For some reason Tbilisi believes that anti-Russian rhetoric would help her to achieve quick accession to NATO and the EU. It may well be that Georgia be admitted into NATO, but only because she borders on Russia, and, consequently, the Alliance will be standing on the Russian border.

Upon accession to the WTO, Russia agrees to reduce import duties, cut by half the agricultural support, and liberalize domestic prices on gas. During the first year after Russia's WTO accession, no foreign trade duty will be reduced. Transitional periods from 1 to 7 years are envisaged for a wide range of products; within 7 years tariffs on industrial goods will drop to 8.2% vs. 11.1% on the average. Customs duties on consumer products, mass-produced in Russia, will not drop practically (except for cars and shoes). At the same time tariffs on computers will be eliminated; duties on consumer electronics and electrical technology, medicine, technological and scientific equipment shall be reduced. The State will provide assistance to agriculture in an amount of no more than $ 9 billion/year. Currently the total agricultural aid is $ 3.5 billion/year, but the size of subsidies will be discussed in multilateral negotiations.

All these commitments will do no good to the Russian Federation and it is indistinct why Moscow should seek membership in the WTO – to once again show her value, or to put the chill on Georgia? Meanwhile, at the beginning of the last round of talks in Switzerland, The Wall Street Journal highlighted the visit of Gunnar Wiegand, who works for EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton as the EU's top diplomat for Russia and Central Asia, and who met with senior Georgian officials in Tbilisi on October 25. He delivered a blunt message to Georgia, saying Tbilisi needs to quickly agree to Russian accession, otherwise the EU would be open to putting on the table an exemption to WTO rules allowing a straight-up majority vote on Dec. 15, which would allow Russia to get in without Georgia's approval, a huge loss of face for Georgia. It appears the WTO laws allow exceptions under which an applicant for membership in the organization can be granted accession even without the consent of all the members.

So, the international community is vitally interested in Russia joining the WTO and no one is really interested in the position of Georgia. Russia can become a member of the Organization in the middle of 2012. In this regard, we recall the fact that when Armenia was getting ready to join the WTO, Turkey did not fix any obstacles, just on the contrary. This once again shows that Ankara is guided by common sense rather than by the unsatisfied ambitions of Mikhail Saakashvili.

In short, Georgia was cut down to size, Moscow was promised all the blessings within the WTO, but in reality nothing will change and Russia’s WTO accession looks unconvincing and unnecessary in this context.