Country Watch
side of South Africa, especially in the South African and international press. While the upper house is considering this bill, several groups plan to con- tinue to protest against its passage. For example, Cosatu, the largest trade union in South Africa, has already stated that it will file suit in the High Court to get the law declared unconstitutional if it passes. The Protection of Information Bill has only exacerbated the belief among civilians that the government is trying to cover-up its use of funds that should be used for public services.
* Submitted by Dominique de Vastey
World Trade Organization Formally Accepts Russian Application For Membership
On December 16, 2011, the Russian Federation’s application for membership in the World Trade Or- ganization (WTO) was formally accepted by the WTO’s Ministerial Conference. The Russian parlia- ment is expected to ratify the accession treaty well in advance of its June 2012 deadline. Currently the largest economy outside the WTO, Russia exports $444 billion USD and imports $319 billion USD worth of goods and services annually. Although seemingly high, these figures reflect a compara- tively small share of global commerce. Russia imports less than 2 percent of the world’s total imports, due in large measure to significant trade barriers in Russian domestic law. These figures will change dramatically in the coming decade. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy comments that Rus- sia’s entry “will bring greater certainty and stability to business operators and trading partners. It is a contribution to the rule of trade law.”
The WTO was created upon completion of the Uruguay Round of revisions to the General Agree- ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. GATT was established in 1947, and created a basic rule structure under which member nations would operate their respective tariff schemes. Chiefly, member states agreed to set specific maximum tariff rates for all imported goods, and to limit other
barriers to trade, such as bans on certain goods and preferential treatment for domestically manu- factured products.
While restrictions on unfair practices were written into GATT, no effective enforcement mechanism compelled members to act according to its provi- sions. With the establishment of the WTO, mem- bers became bound by decisions of a dispute settlement process, and are now required to regu- late imports and exports in accordance with GATT, lest they be sanctioned by their trading partners. Moreover, several Uruguay Round agreements expanded the concepts enshrined in GATT and applied them to services and intangible products, such as software and other intellectual property.
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin viewed GATT as a capitalist tool, meant to cement Western power in postwar Europe. As a result, the USSR sat out of the Agreement, only taking steps to join un- der Mikhail Gorbachev’s leadership in 1986. Be- fore Russia could be fully brought into the GATT community in the 1990s, the accession process changed dramatically with the advent of the WTO, and the Soviet Union splintered into more than a dozen sovereign nations.
Dramatic economic and political upheaval in Russia during the 1990s made accession virtually impos- sible, and simmering bilateral trade conflicts with the United States made Russian entry a political hot button. Indeed, Russia formally applied to join the WTO in 1993, and although smaller, less devel- oped states have been admitted, Russia has been left out. Through the first decade of this century, however, substantial reform in Russia’s law and global recognition of its importance, particularly in the petroleum and mining industries, may have prompted the WTO membership to welcome Rus- sia into the fold. Upon full membership, Russia will increase the WTO’s governance to 97 percent of global trade in goods and services.
Significant changes have already been made in Russian law, and many more are underway. Rus-
ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 3 » February 2012
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