Putin Complains About WTO Control

Posted by Daniel Workman Jun 16, 2007

Putin argues that, as it stands today, the WTO protects the best interests of more developed countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

Putin's main issue with the WTO's centralized structure is that international trade for all member countries revolve around so-called "Old World" currencies, namely the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Putin wants to put more trade controls in the hands of fast-developing countries through a regional European-Asian organization responsible for local area free trade agreements. Regional organizations could be modeled on the WTO but regulatory and decision-making powers would shift to regional committees.

From an economic performance perspective, Putin's case for regional free trade has merit. International Monetary Fund statistics for 2006 show that China's economy grew at 10%, India at 8.4% and Russia at 6.4% - well-above the world average.

It looks like Putin doesn't want world trade laggards catching up, at least not any time soon.