Russia does not currently plan to terminate its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). On Tuesday, February 28, told TASS Deputy Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Pankin.
“To date, the position of relevant departments, including the Russian Foreign Ministry, has not changed – we still consider the WTO an important and uncontested platform for defending Russian trade and economic interests,” Pankin said.
According to the diplomat, Moscow’s withdrawal from the WTO would lead to a decrease in the country’s involvement in global production and marketing chains, as well as in the processes of the international division of labor.
“Given the high level of Russia’s integration into the world economy, such a radical step could lead to artificial self-isolation of the national economy,” he explained.
Earlier, on February 15, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the WTO is an important platform for defending Russian interests. For this reason, the department opposed the country’s withdrawal from the organization.
At the end of October, Vladimir Ilyichev, deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development, said that Russia had no plans to withdraw from the WTO. He noted that Russia proceeds from the fact that it is more profitable for it to remain in this organization, since within its framework it is convenient to communicate not only with unfriendly countries, this is the basis for working with China, India, Brazil and other countries.
August 22 marked 10 years since Russia became a member of the WTO. The Russian Federation signed the protocol on joining the organization on April 15, 1994, and joined it only in 2012. According to Maxim Medvedkov, head of the trade policy department at the Higher School of Economics, who was the chief negotiator of the Ministry of Economic Development on Russia’s accession to the WTO, the Russian Federation handed over the accession document to the WTO secretariat only a few hours before the six-month deadline.
