Russia Plans To Reduce Subsidies

Posted by Matt Hopkins|28 September 2010

Russia is trying to accelerate its accession to World Trade Organization, with Russian Agriculture Minister Elena Skrynnik promising to reduce governmental support by half, according to a report by RT.

Skrynnik says WTO talks involving officials from 19 countries and the USA which make up the Cairns Group went positively indicating that Russia, the largest global economy outside the WTO was poised to move inside.

Skrynnik also outlined a general plan that will resolve controversial agriculture issues in Russian WTO talks.

“We told our partners about the situation in Russian agriculture, in particular the drought, and outlined our position, which is based on three points: firstly, that government support for the sector remains at $9 billion per year until 2012; secondly, that this support will be scaled down to $4.4 billion in 2013-2017, according to our own schedule; and thirdly, we comply with the WTO regulation regarding the absence of export subsidies,” Skrynnik says.