OREANDA-NEWS. February 12, 2014. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree establishing the Information and Analysis Center of Industry and Trade, designed to provide support for Russian exporters in the WTO.

The state corporation Rostec, Gazprombank, and REU are the official co-founders.

Entrepreneurs have been complaining for more than a year about the lack of protection of their interests in the World Trade Organization. In response, authorities this week officially founded two such structures, the Expert Center on the WTO (part of the Ministry of Economic Development) and the Information and Analysis Center (part of the Ministry of Industry).

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Evtukhov explained that the centers will have clear jurisdictions in supervising work relating the World Trade Organization. The Ministry of Economic Development will work primarily overseas to protect the interests of Russia in international trade disputes and the Ministry of Industry will support exporters and address specific problems of domestic business.

This includes providing Russian companies access to foreign markets, removing existing barriers abroad, and protecting the domestic market of industrial products from increasing imports. In addition, the center will help companies to develop export plans, provide advice on the development strategy of industries, and engage in risk management. Services of the new center will be free for entrepreneurs.

The state program Development of Industry and Increasing its Competitiveness will fund the center’s work in 2014 and will be overseen by a six-member board formed by the founders. It is still unknown who will lead the Center. But, as Victor Evtukhov explained, it will be a person who knows the industry and is recognized by industries with significant managerial experience.
Currently, there are more than a hundred restrictive measures against the Russian marketing of products. For example, Brussels has antidumping measures against Russian pipes, ammonium nitrate, ferrosilicon, steel cables, and ropes. Over the course of the first year of Russia's membership in the WTO the number of such measures has increased according to a December report from the ECE.

Industry and Trade Center may begin its work in the first half of the year.