Russia-Georgia WTO Negotiations Abandoned

Negotiations between Russia and Georgia on the former country's World Trade Organization (WTO) accession remain deadlocked, according to Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze.

The Minister said that Georgia had decided negotiations should be abandoned as no headway is being made on issues relating to trade with the breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He said talks would be revisited when Russia engages constructively in discussion on borders controls in the territories. Georgia has confirmed that it will continue to oppose Russia's 2011 accession until a resolution can be achieved.

Russia, which remains the largest country without WTO membership, has dismissed Georgian concerns, stating that outstanding issues relate to political wrangling following the 2008 five-day Russia-Georgia war, and it called for talks to focus solely on trade issues.

Noting that the vast majority of hurdles had been overcome with other WTO members, Russia called on the European Union and the United States to exert pressure on Georgia to remove its objections, paving the way for Russian membership to be approved at the WTO ministerial due to be held in December.

While it would be politically challenging, it has been noted that WTO members could take the unprecedented step of pushing through Russia's accession without the approval of Georgia.

The WTO Agreement states that decisions must be approved by a two-thirds majority of members (currently at 153), but elsewhere in the Agreement, it is stated that the Organization's practice is to arrive at decisions by consensus, and that a vote is only taken when it is impossible to reach a consensus. A 1995 Council vote decided that consensus should take precedence over vote-based decision making.

October 13, 2011

Source: Tax News

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