Russian exporters to benefit from Bali deal
MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) - Russian exporters, including agriculture producers and the chemicals and metallurgical industries, will obtain significant benefits from the Bali deal reached at a WTO conference in Bali Saturday, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said at a briefing in Moscow Monday.
"The first two blocks are important to us [an agreement on simplifying trade procedures and the agricultural block of agreements]. Simplifying trade procedures will mean a significant improvement in export terms for our companies, including exporters of value added goods. This includes chemicals, petrochemicals, pulp and paper, machine construction and metal processing. They will get a good chance to get stronger on markets where our positions are not so good. This will, of course, not happen automatically, Business and executive authorities will have to work hard. But the result can be measures in tens of billions of rubles in additional revenue and a serious increase in export volumes," the minister said.
Commenting on the agriculture agreements, Ulyukayev said adopting these documents and "opening the way towards further improvement in the parameters of international trade of agriculture products during the Doha round, including export subsidies, applied especially in the United States and the EU, is extremely important to us in terms of the competitiveness of our agriculture exports," he said.
"I hope Russia will become a full-fledged agriculture product exporter. Now we are such an exporter only periodically - depending on the harvest. I think that with these documents [the Bali deal and further agreements in the Doha WTO conference], we will gradually become a constant agriculture exporter. We have every reason to be," he said.