Russia's accession to WTO textile light industry faces new opportunities for development

After 18 years of hard work, Russia finally knocked on the door of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

At present, the Russian side is still waiting for the WTO ministerial meeting held on December 15-17 to ratify its WTO accession. However, as Russia and Georgia reached a final agreement on November 9, the final obstacle to Russia’s WTO accession negotiations has been swept away. clear.

According to the commitment made by Russia, after the accession to the WTO, the Russian government agreed to reduce the current average import tariff rate from 10% to 7.8%, of which tariffs on agricultural products fell from 13.2% to 10.8%, and tariffs on industrial products from 9.5% to 7.3%.

Prior to this, Russia had always had a longing for entering the WTO, fearing that opening up policies such as reducing import tariffs would have an impact on domestic industries. Anatoly Toppirin, a Russian expert on macroeconomic studies, believes that with the opening of the market, the entry of foreign goods will bring intense competition to Russia's light industry and high-tech industries, which will lead to changes in Russia’s employment structure.

In fact, the Russian government also considered these issues. In the WTO commitments, the Russian government also stated that there will still be one-fourth of the tariffs on imported goods will not fall to their promised tax rate until after joining the WTO for three years.

The influence of accession to the WTO is just like Boris Fuming, president of the Textile Industry and Light Industry Commerce Committee of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “There are two sides to the coin, and there are benefits and drawbacks to Russia's accession to the WTO. But overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.”

Boris Fomin takes the textile light industry as an example. The industry is one of the weakest industries in Russia. In its textile light industry market of 2 trillion to 3 trillion rubles, the local product share is only 20% to 25%. The remaining market share needs to be maintained by imports. Even so, he is not worried about the possible impact of the WTO entry. Fu Mingshi believes that accession to the WTO will remove about 50% of the grey imports from the import share. The Russian textile light industry market will become more standardized, and local companies will instead have opportunities for growth. At the same time, trading partners are also willing to invest in a more fair and legal Russian market.