EU-Russia Trade Relations: It Takes WTO to Tango?

On 22 August 2012, Russia finally became, nineteen years after its application, a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This historical step was applauded by many EU officials as they argue that Russia's WTO accession not only means the country's definitive accession into the world market economy, but that it also creates a window of opportunity for deepening EU-Russia trade relations. The current EU-Russia legal framework, the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), is limited in its scope and contents and does not provide the EU with a solid legal instrument to rely on in its many trade disputes with Russia. Therefore, this article analyses to which extent Russia's multilateral WTO accession commitments will broaden and deepen the bilateral PCA in order to reduce or settle these trade conflicts. Particular attention will be devoted to the EU's role in Russia's WTO accession process. On the basis of three case-studies (i.e., (i) Russia's sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) import bans, (ii) energy disputes and (iii) Russia's export duties on raw materials), the author argues that the results are rather mixed. In addition, it will be demonstrated that the prospect of an EU-Russia Free Trade Area (FTA) remains unrealistic because the feasibility of such an undertaking is hampered by several legal and political obstacles.