Russia's accession to WTO and China's role in world economy were discussed in Vilnius

On 2 June in Vilnius, Lithuania‘s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė and Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Rufus H. Yerxa discussed the main issues on the international trade policy agenda, Russia‘s WTO accession and the changing role of China in the world economy.

In the Vice-Minister‘s words, Lithuania supports Russia‘s WTO membership, given that the country implements the requirements of the accession to this organization.  Lithuania is interested in the setting of stable and predictable relations with Russia and hopes that Russia‘s membership in the WTO would allow to avoid such cases as the increase of custom duties for imports in the beginning of 2010, basing this decision on the establishment of the customs union.

R.Yerxa acknowledged, that it was difficult to predict Russia‘s WTO accession due to the customs union that was being established with Kazakhstan and Belarus, as well as because of the remaining unsolved issues, first of all related to the intellectual property and agriculture. He also highlighted the benefit of the WTO membership for Russia and its trading partners.

The representative of the WTO noted that despite certain problems with the implementation of its WTO commitments, China was a constructive participant of the international trade system. Due to its large dependence on exports, China was interested in the stability of world markets.

Vice-Minister A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė informed her interlocutor that lately Lithuanian-Chinese relations have become very active and China acknowledged that there was a need to change the currently existing format of economic cooperation which is dominated by the Chinese exports.

Efforts of Lithuania‘s Government to attract foreign investments to the country were also discussed at the meeting.

R.Yerxa visited Lithuania as a participant of the Baltic Development Forum (BDF) Summit.

The Summit, which is also called “The Baltic Davos”, was held on 1-2 June in Vilnius. It joined together influential personalities from business, politics and academic community to discuss the current economic situation and possibilities to improve it, the European Union’s policy in the Baltic Sea region, and to search for mutual cooperation opportunities. The BDF has organized such Summits in the countries of the Baltic Sea region annually since 1999.