Russia 111216 Basic Political Developments

Hello, WTO!

Published: 16 December, 2011, 12:11

With a stroke of a pen on Friday evening Russia joins the World Trade Organisation, something that’s been a long time coming.

Experts agree the end of the eighteen year courtship with the WTO will not bring immediate results for Russian economy.  Immediately it will seriously hit a number of uncompetitive industries, such as agriculture and automobiles, as well as light industry and machine manufacturing.

“A lot still needs to be done in terms of understanding what WTO membership will bring to Russia,” said Viktor Vekselber, Russia’s metals tycoon. “We must open our eyes to what we pay for a ticket to this trade club,” Vekselber added.

The longer term economic impact, will is likely to prove positive, as the reduction of trade barriers should spur Russian companies to become more competitive.

According to Russia’s Ministry for Economic Development, consumer prices are expected to go down 10%, with the accession adding another 4.3% to a GDP growth. The World Bank also calculates that spending will go up 7%.

Russia's accession to the global trade club is likely to boost its foreign trade as well. The United States expects its exports to Russia to double over the next five years.

Karel de Gucht, EU Trade Commissioner, believes Russia's WTO membership will spur trade with European companies as well, “because the accession to WTO will give them the assurance that they were in a legal environment that was more transparent than it was before.”

More immediately the big winner is likely to be the Russian consumer, who’ll get better quality goods at a more competitive price, experts agree.

Once the WTO accession protocol is signed in Geneva, the Russian Parliament then has 8 months to ratify it.

And it's more than just paperwork, as the leading industrial lobbyist Alexander Shokhin explains.

“Before ratification, both the government and business will have the task of adapting current state support for vulnerable industries. These include the agriculture and automotive sectors of the economy. State support schemes will be changed into new mechanisms allowed by the WTO's rules.”

Washington declines to comment on Putin’s criticism of U.S.

WASHINGTON, December 16 (RIA Novosti)

On Thursday, during a four-hour Q&A session, Putin said that “America does not need allies, it needs vassals.”

“Well, you’d have to speak to Prime Minister Putin about his motives for some of the comments that he made,” Victoria Nuland, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, told a daily press briefing.

Putin also accused the United States of imposing its political will on its allies. He referred to the U.S. military campaign in Iraq in 2003 when the United States attacked the country and then compelled its allies to join the operation.

12:02 16/12/2011ALL NEWS

Kyoto Protocol loses its effectiveness - FM

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/299130.html

MOSCOW, December 16 (Itar-Tass) —— The Kyoto Protocol has lost its effectiveness, spokesman of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday commenting on Canada’s decision to leave the international mechanism.

“It is another example proving that the Kyoto Protocol, which was designed back in 1997, has lost its effectiveness in the context of the social and economic situation of the 21st century,” he said, “as it does not provide an adequate participation in collective effort to suspend the anthropogenic influence on the Earth’s climate of all countries.”

Lukashevich added that “the right to leave /the Kyoto Protocol/ is a sovereign right of every country.”

According to the charter procedures, Canada will retain its membership in the Kyoto Protocol for another year.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.

The major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialised countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so.

Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.”

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted at COP 7 in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh Accords.”

President Receives Russian Delegation  

http://www.mediacentre.go.ug/details.php?catId=4&item=1479

President Yoweri Museveni has received and held talks with a Russian delegation, led by the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister in charge of African and Middle East Affairs Mr. Bogdanov who paid a courtesy call on him at State House, Entebbe.

President Museveni pointed out that it is very crucial for Russia to take interests in African countries as the case was in the past adding that African countries have great potential in contributing to stabilizing the world if they work together.