YU Xiaoli

Abstract: Since 1995, Russia began conducting talks about entering the World Trade Organization. It wasn’t until 2011 that Russia was offi cially allowed to enter the WTO. Compared with the other members of the WTO, Russia’s road to the WTO was longest and most tortuous. For more than ten years, the talks between Russia and the members of the WTO covered economic system and foreign trade activities in all their respects. The European Union, the United States and Georgia were the hardest opponents to deal with in the talks. Russia’s concessions made for entering the WTO mainly refl ected the respects of agriculture, market entry and revenue. Entry into the WTO was both benefi cial and disadvantageous to Russia. For balancing the advantages and disadvantages, the all circles in Russia did not reach a consensus. Russian people only had a superfi cial knowledge of the WTO so that most of them had a conservative and cautious attitude about entering the WTO. It is reasonable to believe that Russia’s
entry into the WTO will be benefi cial to the international trade and drive the development of the Sino-Russian trade relations.
Key words: Russia; WTO; talks about entering the WTO