Russia Becomes WTO's 156th Member

August 22, 2012

On August 22, 2012, Russia officially joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming the WTO’s 156^th member. According to a WTO press release, Russia has committed to fully apply all WTO provisions and requires recourse to very few transitional periods. Russia is expected to apply, on average, a final bound tariff of 7.8% for goods. American companies, however, may not experience the advantages of Russia’s WTO membership and face the possibility of higher Russian tariffs than companies in most other WTO member countries because the United States has not granted Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations  (PNTR) status. Currently, the Jackson-Vanik amendment prevents the United States from establishing PNTR with Russia. Since the WTO Agreement requires permanent, unconditional normal trade relations between Members, the United States and Russia have stated that the WTO Agreement will not apply between the two countries for the time being. Additionally, until the United States grants Russia PNTR, the United States will not be able to take disputes with Russia to the WTO’s dispute settlement body.

On July 26, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Ways and Means favorably reported on a bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment for Russia and Moldova and the Senate Finance Committee approved a similar bill on July 18, 2012. The PNTR legislation must pass the full U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and be signed into law by the President, before the United States can establish PNTR with Russia and have access to all the potential benefits of Russia’s WTO accession.

The WTO also announced that Vanuatu will join the WTO on August 24^th, 2012, becoming the WTO’s 157^th member.

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