The Government has reported on progress regarding the fulfilment of Presidential instruction No Pr-1293 dated June 11, 2013 (Subitem i of Item 1) on identifying hidden industry barriers in WTO member countries.
The Government said it is systematically monitoring the WTO member countries’ policies to identify hidden barriers that are not consistent with WTO rules and prevent Russian goods from entering foreign markets. If such hidden discriminatory measures are found, the information is posted on the Ministry of Economic Development’s Foreign Economic Operation Portal and updated on a monthly basis.
The most common barriers include overly demanding product certification rules, such as EU countries apply to automotive equipment, light industry products, high reproductive capacity seeds and chemicals. Egypt has tough certification requirements for wheat, Brazil for fish products, China for flax seeds and Moldova for sugar.
Brazil uses various subsidies (including tax benefits) for domestic producers and exporters in the automotive and oilfield equipment industries; India applies the same policy to industrial exports, Indonesia to mining products and Switzerland to loan insurance and subsidising R&D.
A number of countries also impose differentiated or additional taxes on tobacco products in Armenia and fertilisers in Brazil. Moldova has introduced an environmental tax.
These barriers apparently violate the WTO agreements, and Russia is working to lift or to liberalise these rules with regard to Russian products based on a negotiating position that has been agreed upon with the federal executive bodies and the business community. To this effect, consultations are being held in Geneva; the liquidation of hidden barriers is among the issues discussed during bilateral talks and meetings of intergovernmental commissions.
Russia is studying the experience of WTO member countries in introducing policies to protect national producers and exporters. The results of this analysis are used in the preparation and implementation of the Government Action Plan aimed at adapting Russian industries to the conditions of Russia’s WTO membership, as well as in the development of technical requirements and certification procedures in the Customs Union.
The Russian Government is also studying the possibilities for setting up a WTO competence centre to ensure Russia’s active involvement in the global trade system. This will help to thoroughly analyse existing hidden barriers in various WTO countries and to work out effective counter-measures to protect Russian business interests using international experience in the matter.