31506

SoSe 16: Russia and the WTO. Foreign Trade with Major Partners: Problems and Prospects

Vadim Kapustkin

Comments

This course offers a comparative look at the Russian WTO accession and membership. We begin with the WTO general overview. The WTO’s creation on 1 January 1995 marked the biggest reform of international trade since after the Second World War. We will make general overview of Russian accession (chronology, agenda of negotiations). Prospects and possible repercussions of Russia’s WTO membership and foreign trade with major trading partners (the EU, the CIS-members, China) will be examined. Russian perspective of the Doha round of the WTO negotiations will be discussed in the final part of the course. This is a lecture course, though there will also be a significant discussion component. Every class includes ‘discussion session’ where students should discuss breaking news related to Russia’s WTO accession and membership problems and prospects. Students are expected to stay abreast of major developments, by at a minimum by frequent reading of internet sources such as the Russian Ministry of Economic Development - http://www.economy.gov.ru; the WTO - www.wto.org; the EU - http://europa.eu. The general pattern will be instructor’s lecture for approximately one and half hour, followed by time for Q & A. close