You're reading: Medvedkov: WTO documentation could be ratified in two-three months

St. Petersburg - The State Duma will consider the documents concerning Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the next two or three months, said Maksim Medvedkov, Director of the Department of Trade Negotiations at the Russian Economic Development Ministry.

"The documents concerning Russia’s accession to the WTO will be considered by the State Duma over the next two or three months," Medvedkov said at a roundtable as part of the second St. Petersburg international legal forum on Friday, May 18.

In the time remaining before Russia’s WTO accession, Russia needs to analyze certain provisions effective in the framework of the Customs Union, particularly sanitary requirements, according to Yekaterina Mayorova, Deputy Director of the Department of Trade Negotiations.

"In the event of inconsistency, we must understand how to substantiate them at all from a scientific point of view," she added.

As regards cooperation within the Customs Union after Russia’s accession to the WTO, a unique hierarchy of agreements with Russia has been created, where WTO agreements shall prevail over those of the Customs Union, Mayorova said.

"We shall automatically harmonize the Customs Union regulations with the multilateral trade rules. In my view, this scheme is temporary because at some point it will have to cease its existence if the Customs Union joins the WTO and has the relevant rights and liabilities. The current scheme will be more advantageous for businesses because it will allow both Kazakhstan and Belarus to comply with the basic WTO requirements," the official said.

The main legal challenge after Russia’s WTO accession will be to apply efficiently the current laws and to prevent new regulations conflicting with the WTO being passed, said Dmitry Lyakishev, advisor at the Russian permanent mission in Geneva.

"Russia’s accession to the WTO creates new opportunities to protect the interests of economic operators, but the scale and efficiency of their use will depend on all participants in the process," Lyakishev said.

Such new opportunities include access to dispute-resolution mechanisms, and the possibility of an administrative or judicial appeal against trade sanctions using the procedures provided by existing Russian laws and improved in line with the WTO rules, he said.

"Also an opportunity arises to challenge the national measures in a manner established by the Russian laws with explicit reference to the provisions of the WTO agreements," the expert said.

With Russia joining the WTO, the rules of this trade organization become a priority over the other Russian statutory acts, except the constitution, he said.