31.10.2001 19:07:41
Head of the Board of the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Industrial Complex: Accession to the WTO is an inevitable process (RIA-Novosti, October 30, 2001)

Accession to the World Trade Organization is an inevitable process for Russia. This was noted by Vladimir Lisin, Chairman of the Board of Novolipetsk Metallurgical Industrial Complex, when he was commenting on the field session of the World Economic Forum which took place on Tuesday in Moscow.

According to him, it is important nowadays to discuss methods and forms of Russia's WTO accession. He also noted that "it is necessary to choose the ways of WTO accession which may bring maximum effectiveness to Russian business and Russian economy". For this purpose, Lisin says, concrete negotiations on concrete positions and economy sectors are required.

In his opinion, it is important that Russia should have equal with other countries conditions of WTO accession, also Russia should be given a status of the country with market economy prior to her accession to this organization. Without the status being given to Russia, Lisin said, there is no sense in WTO accession.

According to Lisin, Russian export today is subject to significant losses, first of all because of dumping procedures and discrimination at the world markets. After the September events in USA most of the countries work out measures on the protection of their domestic markets. He emphasized that in these conditions, especially when Russia has no status of the country with market economy, it will be still more difficult for our enterprises to compete with western companies.

Information on the topic

• A.Mordashov: “Maintaining competitiveness of the Russian metallurgy depends on the government actions”
• The US might toughen its antidumping measures imposed on the foreign producers, including those from Russia (RosBusinessConsulting, October 23, 2001)
• Representative of the US Trade Ministry will arrive to Moscow for negotiations on the conditions of Russian steel exports to the US (RosBusinessConsulting, October 18, 2001)
• The U.S. “steel lobby” initiates new antidumping investigations against foreign competitors (SMI.Ru Information Agency)
• Vladimir Lisin on accession to the WTO: “Why jump head over heels at European Union proposals?” (Ekspert, September 17, 2001)