WTO Off The Agenda Until 2011

Russia's decision to back out of WTO accession negotiations in favour of a new multilateral application as part of a customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, presents a significant reversal in foreign trade policy. Specifically, it marks a new short-term focus on liberalising trade within the CIS while ending any efforts to enter a global trade regulation mechanism until 2011 at the earliest. We caution that this could mark a period of greater protectionism and will impact trade growth potential in the medium term.

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