Russia PNTR

Russian PNTR. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

After 18 years of trying, Russia is finally joining the World Trade Organization. But for this to really make a difference for the United States, Congress must first vote to give Russia permanent normal trade relations status.

SALMONSEN: We have an old law going back to the Cold War days which requires the United States to grant something called permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) before the United States can take advantage of Russia joining the WTO, because of them being a former communist country.

American Farm Bureau Trade Specialist Dave Salmonsen says until Congress does this, other WTO countries will have better negotiating power with Russia than the U.S.

SALMONSEN: Russia has been by far the largest economy and the largest nation of over 150 million people outside of the rules-based trading system that is the World Trade Organization. Other nations have wanted them to be part of the rules and procedures, wanted them to be subject to what’s called the “dispute settlement arrangements” whereby countries can bring trade cases against each other to get them settled. They are lowering tariffs on a wide variety of products and trade should increase, but the most important part of it if we don’t pass permanent normal trade relations, we’ll go back to the relationship where we don’t have the dispute settlement of the WTO. All of the things that were negotiated, we’ll be out of.

But Salmonsen says it shouldn’t be difficult. Congress passed the same provision back in 2000 when China entered the WTO. They just have to act.

SALMONSEN: This is up to the Congress. The U.S. does nothing. We don’t change one tariff line. We gave no concession to Russia. We’re not waiting on the administration to send anything to Congress like we were with the free trade agreements a year ago. This is up to Congress to pass. The administration is behind it. A lot of the business community is behind it. There are issues with Russia, certainly in some of their conduct on human rights. Concerns that have to be worked out, but we certainly are hoping this gets done in a timely manner this year.

He says Russia has the potential to become a more important export market for the U.S.

SALMONSEN: The U.S. has had a growing trade relationship *or agriculture. It’s about $1.4 billion a year, to Russia, primarily in meat products. For many years they had been our largest export market for poultry. Also significant for beef and pork.They have potential for growth. They are the world’s 9th largest economy.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.