WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Russia continues to move away from commitments it made to join the World Trade Organization in 2012, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said on Tuesday, citing agricultural import restrictions and import substitution policies.
In an annual report to Congress on Russia’s WTO compliance, USTR said Russia in 2021 introduced new tracking systems for consignments of goods through supply chains and has maintained non-science-based agricultural import restrictions.
“Over the past year, Russia has continued its trajectory of an economy moving away from the guiding principles of the WTO: non-discrimination, freer trade, predictability, transparency, and fair competition,” USTR said in the report.
“Rather, Russia maintains restrictive at-the-border measures, institutes behind-the-border measures to inhibit trade, and implements an industrial policy seemingly driven by the guiding principles of import substitution and forced localization.”