The moment Russia joins the World Trade Organization the import duties introduced during the crisis in 2008-2009 will be brought down to their original level, Russia’s point man on WTO accession said on Thursday.
“The pre-crisis tariff, the 2007 tariff” will be back, Maxim Medvedkov said.
Import duties on new cars will be reduced to 25 percent from 30 percent, he added.
Earlier on Thursday the WTO Working Party on Russia’s accession approved the package spelling out Russia’s terms of entry to the organization.
From the date of accession, Russia has committed to fully apply all WTO provisions, including the legally binding tariff ceiling of 7.8% compared with a 2011 average of 10% for all products.
Russia has agreed to lower its tariffs on a wide range of products.
The Working Party will now send its accession recommendation to the December 15-17 Ministerial Conference, where ministers are expected to approve the documents and accept Russia as a WTO Member.
Russia will have until June 15, 2012 to ratify its accession package.
Russia will become a full-fledged member of the WTO thirty days after the accession documents are ratified by the Russian parliament.
