Russia in WTO

Russia in WTO. Will it be good for WTO? How will it benefit Russia itself?

Russian bear with the WTO girl on the Titanic | Drawing from the Russian cartoon film Titanic | Click for image.

The Way of the Bear
The Russian parliament has till June 15 by when it will have to approve the deal on Russia WTO membership.

Russia is the largest economy in the world that has yet to join the WTO. Doing so after 18 years of negotiations will require Moscow to further open its market, safeguard intellectual property and investments, and strengthen the rule of law.

While Russian authorities anticipate accession, local businesses weigh in the probable losses and benefits they’ll see on getting membership. Adding to worries is the time of the entry, as Europe and the US may be close to another recession amid their debt problems.

Analysts generally estimate joining the WTO as positive. “Competition is expected to grow, though prices will go down, but customers shouldn’t expect quick changes in prices. The transitional period in the WTO will last until 2020,” says Ivan Nikolayev from Aton investment group. (via ‘Russia’s been 10 years late to WTO’ — RT).

As can be expected, there is an anti-WTO lobby, which wants to safeguard Russia high-technology industry from predatory Western commercial practices.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov has sent an official letter to the Russian government demanding to prevent the country from joining the WTO.

­“WTO accession will create a real threat to national sovereignty and state security,” Zyuganov wrote.

In financial terms, it would also mean that the 2013 Russian budget will be short of 310 billion roubles (around $9.5 billion), he added, quoting estimates by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Thus, the WTO would cost Russia its three-year budget in losses, Zyuganov stressed.

In his view, the country is joining the WTO on “absolutely disadvantageous conditions”. Its main industries are unable to compete with Western partners, the Communist leader notes. Aircraft construction, small and average businesses will find themselves in the most vulnerable situation, he says.

“The government is giving up support of Russian producers just at the moment when the battle for markets, financial flows and access to natural resources is intensifying,” he went on to say.

Apart from purely economic disadvantages, Zyuganov says, joining the WTO would turn Russia into a “territory ruled from the outside”, as the organization is a “tool for the destruction of the state” and “assertion of world corporate power,” he insists. (via ‘WTO a threat to Russian state’ – Communist leader — RT).

The Russian Communists have changed.

The Indian Left are still a lumbering, cold-blooded sauropod – waiting for the sun to come up. Their bodies, blood and brains will wake up after someone shines sunlight on them.

---

Related Articles

• No to NATO, Afghan drugs and WTO: Communist anger spills into Russian streets (rt.com)
• Syrian Rift Will Not Hamper Russia’s WTO Bid – White House (en.rian.ru)

‘Opportunist’ China’s Help Rejected By EU

China finds that its US$3 trillion forex hoard cannot buy what it wants.

China's US$3 trillion are not enough to make European defense purchases. | Image source and courtesy - dantomozei.files.wordpress.com; first published at http://en.cnci.gov.cn//HtmlFiles/News/2011-2-25/13348.html in China Daily on 2011-2-25 | Click for larger image.

European policymakers are irked by what they call the opportunism of China’s apparent wish to trade some of its vast foreign wealth for increased influence.

“The idea that Europe is desperate for China’s money is wrong,” one senior euro zone monetary official said this week, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“I don’t like all this talk of Europe begging China for help, because Europe has the resources to solve its own problems if it can find the political will,” the source said.

China’s leaders, meanwhile, must show their citizens that giving some of the country’s $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to Europe is a good thing — especially given the country’s exposure to the 36 percent decline in the nominal value of the U.S. dollar over the last decade.

China had offered help in return for European support to grant it either more influence at the International Monetary Fund, market economy status in the World Trade Organization, or the lifting of a European arms embargo, said the sources, both of whom have direct knowledge of the matter, including one who has ties to the leadership in Beijing.

Granting China market economy status that would, under WTO rules, make it harder for Europe to apply trade sanctions against Chinese imports. China accepted its designation as a non-market economy when joining the WTO in 2001.

And China has been relatively restrained in not demanding publicly that Europe scrap an arms embargo against China — introduced after the 1989 military crackdown on student-led, pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square — in return for financial assistance to end the debt crisis.

China fears that the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis could trigger trade friction with its biggest export market and hurt its exports and economy. (via Exclusive: Politics stymie China’s EU aid offer: sources | Reuters).

Pot calling a kettle black

A text book case.

What makes the EU act pricey – while country after country is going down the bankruptcy route? What is making the EU feel superior?

Is a two-party democracy much superior or better than 1-party democracy?

Just because the heads of EU countries are selected from two sets of power-mongers (what else is a political party?) – instead of one as in (Communist Party) China, does not make EU any better or superior. Try as much as I can, there is little difference I can see between China and the EU.

Except gloss and polish.

View from China | Cartoon by Illustration: Liu Rui; Source and courtesy - globaltimes.cn; Published on 08:23 December 28 2010 | Click for source image.

West is the Best

The West does have more skills when it comes to ‘settling’ rivals.

You only have to look at the way in which Sweden has fixed a rape case against Julian Assange. China is still a few decades behind EU and USA in mounting an operation – such as the Swedish ‘Trojan’.

None of China’s three demands are either bad in principle or prudence. But it does make me wonder. China’s US$3 trillion of foreign exchange reserves is not enough if it wants to buy EU defence products.

Compare this with the US and EU eagerness to sell defence items to India.

---

Related articles

• Political deadlock derails China’s EU aid offer (telegraph.co.uk)
• Q&A: Why China won’t ride to Europe’s rescue (cnn.com)
• Debt crisis: EU ‘refusing to recognise China as a market economy’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• EU bail-out fund chief seeks money from China and IMF (telegraph.co.uk)
• Where’s the eurozone’s white knight? Not in China. (finance.fortune.cnn.com)
• Kerry Brown: Days when the West could lecture Beijing are over (independent.co.uk)
• What Does China Want From Euro Bailout Deal? (news.sky.com)