Environmental Perspective of Russia's Accession to the World Trade Organization
Russia's exports, imports, and ability to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) continue to grow. In December 2011, after eighteen years of negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) invited Russia to join WTO on the basis of the negot...
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| Format: | Other Environmental Study |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/19243627/environmental-perspective-russias-accession-world-trade-organization http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17799 |
| Summary: | Russia's exports, imports, and
ability to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) continue
to grow. In December 2011, after eighteen years of
negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) invited
Russia to join WTO on the basis of the negotiated protocol
of Russian accession. Russia ratified the agreement in July
2012. As part of its accession to the WTO, Russia agreed to
a series of important commitments to further open its trade
and foreign investment regimes. Russia will apply
international standards on sanitary measures and technical
barriers to trade. Policies which promote energy efficiency,
technology innovation, clean production in supply chains,
and addressing climate change are receiving increasing
attention in Russian society, and nowadays, shape the
economic modernization agenda of the Russian political
leadership. This report is designed to provide senior
Russian policy makers with recommendations on certain areas
where national environmental protection policies can be
complemented by the benefits of trade liberalization.
Industrial leaders may also benefit from many of the
report's conclusions and recommendation. The report has
several objectives. The first is to draw attention to the
local impacts of air pollution impacting human health which
has been previously estimated to be between 12 and 17
percent of all-cause mortality in Russia and costing the
economy upwards of 14 billion dollars annually. Correcting
for this "external cost" to society is not trivial
and has serious implications for sector reform. The second
objective is about reducing global warming, and in
particular carbon dioxide (CO2). Russia's commitments
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions have adjustment costs
to the economy and the modeling undertaken in this report
provides some relative magnitude. The third objective is
related to the technological modernization that needs to
take place in order to realize cost reductions (efficiency
improvements) and what the associated environmental benefits
will be. Finally, the report also demonstrates how the
Government can reduce the marginal cost of funds from
Russia's tax system. What this means is that money is
currently being spent (tax Rubles) in an inefficient manner
- either through large subsidies or funding inefficient
production and consumption. The model investigates the
impacts of trade liberalization through three impacts: the
change in production output (the scale effect), sector mix
(the composition effect), and productivity (the technique
effect). The model highlights several areas where benefits
can lead to better protection of the environment, and where
liberalization measures can significantly enhance the
effectiveness of national policies to address key
environmental challenges. This report discusses
Russia's accession to WTO from this perspective. |
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