According to a study published by the international centre for sustainable trade development (ICSTD) on the possible effects of Russian WTO entry on agricultural trade and production, for several commodity groups, Russia’s commitments will allow substantial increases in trade, primarily in sugar and pork.
In the intermediate term, it is possible to expect the competitiveness of Brazilian pork and raw sugar supply to further strengthen.
The countries that export agricultural and food commodities to Russia will see the following benefits:
- reduction of Russia’s custom duties;
- trade facilitation
- predictability of Russia’s regulation offoreign trade;
- unification and transparency of Russia’s nontariff measures of trade regulation.
Among the developing countries, Brazil is the main supplier of pork and raw sugar to Russia. If Brazil maintains its competitiveness relative to other suppliers, its exports of these goods would benefit in the intermediate term from improved access to Russia’s market.
Russia will apply the very liberal in-quota tariff rate of zero percent for pork. It was also agreed that the TRQ for fresh, chilled or frozen pork and for pork trimmings will be eliminated on 1 January 2020. Moreover, the tariff for live swine will be reduced from 40 to 5 percent. Once TRQs have been eliminated, flat ad valorem tariffs will apply for meats: 27.5 percent for beef, 25.0 percent for pork, and 37.5 percent for poultry meat.
April 2012/ ICSTD/ Switzerland.
http://ictsd.org/