Russia finally joins WTO

The World Trade Organization has given its second and final approval for Russia’s membership in the trade body after a record 18-year quest to join. The 153-nation global trade body has recemtly approved by consensus Russia’s application for membership,giving a boost to the ailing economy of its biggest trading partner, the European Union. Until now, Russia has been the only member of the Group of 20 leading economies still outside the WTO.

The Russian parliament will have up to June 15 thisyear to ratify the accord and bring it into force. Moscow’s lead negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said earlier he expected the deal to be ratified “early this year”. The deal is expected to quickly increase EU exports by some 4bn euros (US$5.45bn) a year.

For Finnish export companies, annual savings worth up to hundreds of millions of euros are expected as a consequence of the move. Timo Jaatinen, CEO of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, estimates that the duties for softwood imported from Russia will be cut by about half. At the same time, the duties levied on hardwood will reduce by about three-quarters from the present level.

Assuming that the imports remain at the current level, the reduction in Russia’s export duties will bring the Finnish forest industry savings of approximately EUR 20 million, Jaatinen calculates. The exports of paper and paperboard will produce annual savings of about EUR 10 million.