29 January 2013
Who Enjoys Being a WTO Member?

What is the European Union? What is an advantage of the European integration? How does the WTO principle function? What for has Russia entered the World Trade Organisation and how will this step affect relations between Russia and the European Union? Such a large number of questions is conditioned by events taking place in the world, and sometimes one can hardly understand them if he doesn’t possess sufficient information volume. You can acquire lacking knowledge independently or under supervision of experienced specialists, such as Romanova Tatyana Alexeyevna, the head of J. Monnet Department of the Institute of International Relations of Saint-Petersburg State University.

Every six month, in January and July, Jean Monnet Department organizes intensive two-week courses devoted to the most urgent problems of the European integration and most important issues concerning relations between the European Union and Russia. Winter courses 2013 which were held from January 25 to January 26, 2013 in Saint-Petersburg were devoted to the part WTO plays in the European integration process and relations between the European Union and Russia.

Chernova Nataliya, the manager of VOICES EU Centre, hasn’t missed the chance to more deeply understand peripeteias of global processes, having taken part in the Winter School Session. Small quantity of the course participants permitted to give lectures in the form of a living communication and discussion, which significantly increased their efficiency. By concrete examples the School Session participants got acquainted with the system of WTO functioning and settlement of complex problem arising in the process of trading activities between different countries, and first of all, between the EU, USA, China and Russia (hormone-stuffed beef case, “Boeing versus Airbus” or “Banana Case” etc.).

As all the course participants noted upon the classes termination, WTO is a complex system, mechanisms of which should be studied before entering this organisation. And the question to what extent Russia is ready for forthcoming changes and will be able to adapt to this system remains open for our country (recall that in August, 2012 Russia ratified the Protocol, according to which it became a member of the World Trade Organisation).

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