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Moscow Won't Lose Much from the WTO Delay
The conflict in South Ossetia is bound to make Russia’s route to the World Trade Organization even tougher. So far, Georgia has been the main hurdle, but Washington and even Ukraine may step in to support their ally in this undertaking.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez made clear Tuesday that Russia will hardly join the WTO very soon. Gutierrez “played down any connection between [Russia’s] military action in Georgia and its 15-year old membership bid,” Reuters reported.
At the same time, today’s sentiment of investors is that Russia won’t lose much from delay. Guy de Jonquieres of Britain’s Chatham House said that, thanks to the high proportion of fuel and commodities in Russia’s exports, the country will have just a few advantages from entering the WTO.
“Economically, Russia would lose little by continuing to stay out of the WTO, because its biggest exports by far are energy and raw metals, which are in strong demand and face low trade barriers in many countries,” Reuters quoted de Jonquieres as saying.
www.kommersant.com
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