Russia joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as its 156th member after 18 years of negotiations. As the EU is Russia's first trading partner and Russia is the EU's third trading partner, the accession is specially important for the European Union.

The European Union welcomed Russia's WTO accession. For the first time both entities will be bound by multilateral rules and obligations for their mutual trade. Furthermore, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession will have a positive impact on the conditions of trade and investment between Russia and the European Union. In June 2011, MEPs adopted a report in which they stated its support for more ambitious trade with Russia.

The main changes related to the WTO accession of Russia concern market access improvements for goods and services. The import duties for goods will decrease from a current average of 10% to an average 7.8%. In some important sectors, such as automotive, the import duty reductions are more significant (decreasing from currently 30% to 25% upon accession and to 15% after 7 years). It is estimated that the overall tariff reduction will result in savings of €2.5 billion annually in import duties for EU exporters. Moreover the reduced tariffs are estimated to stimulate €3.9 billion of additional EU exports to Russia per year.

However, certain recently implemented or proposed legislation seems to be at odds with Russia's commitments and would stand in the way of other WTO members fully realising the benefits expected from Russia's WTO accession. The EU is particularly concerned about the proposed new legislation providing for a car recycling fee which could discriminate against imported vehicles and hopes that this legislation will not be adopted.