Russia’s WTO membership: Assessing the impact on foreign trade

Abstract

The  paper   assesses  some  of  the consequences of  Russia’s   accession  to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Whereas much discussion  about its costs and  benefits  happened during the WTO negotiations  and  in  the first years after the  accession, there  was little said  on the  real  consequences afterwards. The aim of the  research  is to assess the  degree  of fulfillment of the  accession expectations after a decade. The research  method is the  analysis  of panel  data on the world  trade for 2000-2019  (an econometric model based on the  gravity model of foreign  trade). It has been  established that the  WTO accession  ultimately benefited for  Russian  foreign  trade. However, this  effect has  been  offset by increased political tensions since 2014. The objections to the  WTO also turned out to be predominantly justified. The most positive economic  consequences of the  WTO exist for exporters of low value added  goods. The criticism of the  WTO participation by machine  builders is understandable: although they  are among the  beneficiaries, the  effects on exports and  imports are comparable.