ACIG participates in the extended meeting of the Committee on Integration, Trade and Customs Policy and WTO of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

On December 19, 2012, an extended meeting of the Committee on Integration, Trade and Customs Policy and WTO, chaired by Aleksei Mordashov, took place in Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Representatives of the expert community and responsible departments of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology of Russia and Eurasian Economic Commission were invited to discuss development prospects of Russian economy in the context of the WTO.  ACIG experts participated in the meeting at the invitation of the Committee Chairman.

One of the key items of the agenda was discussion of the measures for support of the most vulnerable industry branches in the context of Russia's Accession to the WTO and possibility of implementing a safeguard actions mechanism based on Russian legislation and WTO law. Besides that, organization of the monitoring of Russian industry branches adaptation to work in the context of the WTO and earlier RF Federation proposals on workflow during Russia's G20 and B20 Presidency were discussed during the meeting.

In their speech, ACIG experts noted that liberalization of the international trade of goods and services, expressed through tariff and non-tariff barriers, facilitates international competition for sales markets. Under such conditions, domestic market protection against unscrupulous foreign competition and assertion of national interests are the main component of the RF Government’s strategy. However, this means not discrimination, but healthy protectionism, allowed by the international commercial law regulations. In the light of the above-mentioned, one of the priority tasks of the Committee is monitoring condition of economy branches and developing proposals for the RF Government on adaptation of public support programs in conformity with the obtained results.