Russia, U.S. Fail to Reach WTO Agreement reports that “Russia and the United States had failed to agree on Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization .... The failure to reach a deal dashed the hopes of Russian President Vladimir Putin to burnish the first Group of Eight summit hosted by Russia with an economic triumph his government has been seeking for years. ... Russia is the largest economy to remain outside the 149-nation WTO, which sets the rules for global trade. ... Russia sees WTO membership as a way to demonstrate that it has made great strides since the collapse of the ruble in 1998.”
What was Russia’s great crime? Apparently, refusal to buckle under to US pressure to adopt US-style (i.e., insane and draconian) patent and copyright law, and Russia’s refusal to promise to buy more (taxpayer-subsidized, artificially cheap) US farm goods.
I.e., if the US didn’t insist that Russia adopt its anti-property IP laws, and if the US didn’t have a socialistic farm subsidy program, Russia ... would be considered a free market. Hmmm.
