OBSERVATIONS ON STATE TRADING IN THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY

The paper presents an overview of state trading activities in Russia i n light of that country's prospective accession to the World Trade Org anization. The authors cover the origins of Russian state trading, dev elopments after the collapse of the USSR, state involvement in barter trade, and its control of the organizational structure and remaining m onopolies; they also attempt to estimate the government's share in Rus sia's foreign trade turnover in 1996 and mid-1997. A discussion of imp lications embraces issues relating to the inefficiencies of state trad ing and Russia's designation as a nonmarket economy by the United Stat es and the countries of the European Union.