Sergey Lisovskiy, the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee for agricultural and food policies and use of natural resources, has proposed suspending Russia’s World Trade Organization membership. The senator announced his proposal at a press conference in Moscow.
Despite the fact that Russia has made an enormous effort to become part of this organization, Lisovskiy is convinced that nobody ever benefitted from it, taking into account the events of the past few months. “WTO mechanisms don’t work. Some WTO members imposed sanctions on Russia, accordingly we are de-facto no longer a part of the WTO system,” stated the Parliament member, who previously opposed Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization.
Nonetheless, the Parliament member noted that, throughout 12 years’ worth of dialogue with the WTO, Russia has managed to improve conditions for trade significantly, but not to the expected level. “I think that we should suspend WTO membership and start new negotiations, because many aspects they promised to formalize, cannot be formalized, as it turns out,” concluded the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee.
[hr]Source: RG.ru
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina, edited by Elizabeth Martin
