Director-General of the WTO: Kazakhstan and Belarus can get a number of Trading Club advantages through Russia

Economic progress is impossible without integration.

Economic progress is impossible without integration.

Director-General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy has visited Russian Higher School of Economics and met with students. Mr. Lamy called upon CIS countries and those who have not joined the Trading Club yet to expedite their work in that direction.

“Look at my iPad,” said Head of the WTO Pascal Lamy, pointing at Apple’s gadget that was lying next to him. “On the face of it, the thing is American. But the fact is that it is 99% Chinese. And the point is not that most of the components are produced in China but that it is Chinese workers who are busy assembling it, it is Chinese drivers who transport it and it is Chinese sellers who distribute it.

Yet, this is the main advantage of the World Trade Organization. Any of its members can provide its services on the territory of the Trading Club countries. Protectionism is prohibited, discrimination – all the more so. The main thing is to reduce all kinds of barriers between a producer and a consumer however many countries were between them”. Using such simple and vivid example as an iPad, Pascal Lamy was able to explain the essence of the WTO, its benefits and motivation to join this organization.

He called the Customs Union a striking example of fair-play cooperation between the countries. The Head of the World Trade Organization said that the economic union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus is, as a matter of fact, a “mini-WTO”.

“Since Russia is a member of the Customs Union, its rules comply with the standards that have been established for Russia as for the member of the WTO. It means that Kazakhstan and Belarus can also get a number of Trading Club advantages through Russia.

Incidentally, Kazakhstan, as it was noted by the Director-General, should soon join the global alliance. As regards another CIS member – Tajikistan, it can be congratulated on entering the final stage of accession to the Club.

“Soon Kazakhstan shall be able to join the WTO, maybe even this year. But I don’t say that it will happen for certain, it would be too risky to say that. Indeed, a number of issues still remain to be settled. Tajikistan is already in the process of its admission to the membership of the WTO and has entered the final stage of negotiations”.

Mr. Lamy made some snide remarks about Ukraine. The Director-General said that the country demanded unprecedented conditions of its membership in the WTO. According to the guest of the Higher School of Economics, such demands won’t help Ukraine to advance accession to the organization.

“The process of Ukraine’s accession to the WTO has been suspended. The point is that each member of the organization has to meet certain requirements. They can be quite strict. However, these requirements are compensated by a number of advantages the members gain. But Ukraine started to demand unprecedented conditions, which means that we would have to revise more than three hundred tariffs”.

Previously, at the Gaidar Forum in Moscow Pascal Lamy said that the future of the global economy lies with the acceleration of globalization. “The system will be integrated according to industrial sectors and market segments, not countries”. In other words, the future belongs to such entities as the WTO.

“Golos Rossii”, 18.01.2013