OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2011. As part of Russia’s delegation Vnesheconombank participated in the Eighth Ministerial WTO Conference. The Conference took place in Geneva (Switzerland) on December 15-17, 2011.

In accordance with its agenda the Ministerial Conference – the WTO’s supreme body composed of member states representatives took a decision on Russia’s accession to the WTO. The WTO is designed to liberalize international trade and regulate trade and political relations between its member states.

Foreign trade state regulation policy is coordinated within the WTO including state funding of foreign trade and export – import insurance. Regulations and rules provided for by the WTO agreements are in line with principles of fair competition and free trade.

Russia’s accession to the WTO aims for the most part to expand capabilities to export Russian products and services to world markets among other things by way of taking measures to financially support Russian exports. In this respect, a large-scale project associated with developing the state exports support system on the basis of the Russian Export Credit and Investment Insurance Agency (OJSC) set up by Vnesheconombank would make it possible to launch an export credit insurance mechanism in line with the WTO’s regulations and rules.

The World Trade Organization was established in 1995. It is a successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) concluded in 1947. In 1990, the USSR was given the status of GATT observer and in 1993 Russia filed an official application for joining GATT. Russia had been holding negotiations on joining the WTO since 1995.