Restricted access to foreign markets annually causes Russian producers losses of some $2.5 billion, Maksim Medvedkov, head of the Russian Economic Development Ministry's trade negotiations department, said in an interview with the Vedomosti daily published on Thursday.
At the same time, the question of abolishing sanctions after Russia's accession is judicially complicated, he pointed out.
"For example, Mexicans, with whom Russia has not signed a WTO agreement yet, want the protocol to have an 'amicable reservation' that after accession Russia will not demand that Mexico should abolish measures it has already introduced," Mr. Medvedkov explained.
"This, however, is unacceptable for us because we join the WTO to ensure undiscriminating conditions for Russian exporters," he said.
He recalled that Russian had already signed agreements on access to goods markets with WTO members that accounted for about 80% of Russian foreign trade. However, talks are not completed with "such important partners as the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Canada and Malaysia," he added.
New claims appear in the process of negotiations. A partner proposes that Russia should undertake additional commitments on licensing services sphere setting license duties at a certain level and strictly streamlining the licensing procedure.
"In fact, they propose to make Russia a country with a perfect licensing system. On the one hand, this is not much above what we are doing on our own. On the other hand, not a single WTO member has undertaken such commitments. Hence we have a question: why do we have to do what no one else does?" Mr. Medvedkov asks.
Yet another question is how Russia's accession to the WTO is compatible with creation of a single economic space between Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. Mr. Medvedkov explains that the WTO allows its members to participate in other trade agreements and create free trade zones and customs unions.
"Yet for us it is crucial to join the WTO on approximately the same conditions as our partners in the economic space. Otherwise we will have to pay compensations for the countries that join the WTO under more liberal conditions," he said.
This may mean that goods and services for which other members of the single economic space will drastically reduce tariffs, will flood the Russian market via the free trade zone, he explained.
