No Immediate Impact from WTO Membership

We can deduce WTO membership should not have an immediate impact upon Russian exporters. Most Russian manufacturers, with certain exceptions, don’t compete with the Japanese, Europeans, and Americans on the high end and don’t compete in terms of cost structure with China and India on the lower. The major cash cow of Russia is of course commodities and these should not be influenced by WTO membership, one way or the other. We will discuss other aspects in our newsletter and in later blogs but look for WTO membership and the easing of financial regulations to make it easier for international banks to take on new roles in Russia. If nothing else, this alone should be a catalyst that spurs growth for other industries, forces Russian financial companies to be innovative and meet demands of their own customers, and to have carry over effects into other industries.