Russian WTO Accession and the Geneva Agreements: Implications for Russia and Georgia

Representatives of Georgia and Russia signed a set of agreements in Geneva on November 9 that opened the way for the World Trade Organization accession of Moscow. Georgia was the only country that had blocked Russian accession to the WTO for years, demanding that Russia let Georgian authorities monitor trade activities between Russia and the separatist Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to the Swiss-mediated deal, Moscow agreed to allow an independent, private company to check customs on all border crossing points between Russia and Georgia, including the ones on the separatist territories. In exchange, Georgia ceased blocking Moscow’s WTO accession.

This paper looks at the broader consequences of the Geneva deal, and seeks to answer two principal questions. The first is how the Geneva agreements are going to affect Georgia and Russia, both the individual countries and their bilateral relationship. The second is whether the Geneva agreements offer a sustainable and realistic framework for monitoring trade activities on the
Russia-Georgia border.

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