A new evidence from the effects of Russia’s WTO accession on its foreign trade

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of Russia’s WTO accession on Russia’s foreign trade policy with top 40 trading partners. The paper conducts a panel data estimation based on a gravity model for bilateral trade patterns in agricultural and industrial commodities between Russia and 40 trading partners during two separate periods: 2000–2011 and 2012–2015. The paper arrives at two key conclusions. First, economic size, trade remoteness and bilateral exchange rate have a stronger effect on the agricultural trade flows between Russia and its trading partners before the WTO accession of Russia, while economic size, trade remoteness and trade openness show a stronger impact on agricultural trade flows after Russia’s accession to the WTO. Second, economic size, trade remoteness and bilateral exchange rate have a stronger effect on the industrial trade flows between Russia and its top trading partners before the WTO accession, while economic size, trade remoteness and trade openness show a stronger impact on industrial trade flows after the accession. To the best of the author's knowledge, no study has looked at the Russia’s foreign trade with its top trading partners before and after WTO accession of Russia.