Russia will respond to the EU carbon tax through the WTO

The Supervisory Board of the autonomous non-profit organization "Center of Expertise on World Trade Organization Issues" (established by the Ministry of Economic Development, Sberbank and the Higher School of Economics in 2014 by order of the government) approved the center's strategy for the first time, the Ministry of Economic Development told RBC. The document, approved on April 1, postulates a crisis in the international system of trade relations and the need for a Russian response to the technological modernization of Western economies.

The strategy until 2025 (the document is available to RBC) sets the task of developing “conceptual elements” for the future multilateral agenda of trade negotiations, since WTO reform is seen as inevitable. it is possible that before the potential emergence of new global trade rules, the current WTO crisis will deepen, requiring Russia to design a “reserve system” to ensure favorable terms of trade - in fact, alternative temporary rules.

The WTO Expertise Center is a kind of think tank (“think tank”) in the system of the Ministry of Economic Development. Its supervisory board includes Minister of Economics Maxim Reshetnikov and DIRECTOR of the Trade Negotiations Department of the Ministry of Economic Development Ekaterina Mayorova, and on the part of the co-founders - HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov and Sberbank President German Gref. Although the center employs only 12 people, he himself claims that he plays an important role in legal consulting for the state and business in the field of WTO rules and regulations, where Russiajoined in 2012. The center ensures "Russia's maximum independence from foreign legal consulting" in this specific area, according to the Ministry of Economic Development. The adopted strategic document is not formally a legal act of the Russian government, but will be used in developing policies on the WTO agenda, the ministry said.

The answer to the "green" course of the European Union

The new strategy of the center takes into account such an urgent challenge as the climate agenda of foreign countries, which carries risks for the Russian economy, RBC was told at the Ministry of Economic Development. Currently, the WTO Center of Expertise is preparing proposals for the so-called Green Deal of the European Union and the climate policy of other countries, the representative of the center specifies. According to the organization, major economies, including the EU, intend to use the fight against climate change as an excuse for a large-scale technological restructuring of the economy. The European Commission presented the Green Deal plan at the end of 2019, the goal is to achieve full carbon neutrality by 2050 (equality of harmful emissions emitted into the atmosphere and extracted from there).