Russia is not meeting its obligations as a new member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), especially with respect to sanitary and phytosanitary measures, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said in the agency’s report last week to Congress. USTR’s report highlights several areas where the United States has challenged what it considers to be failures by Russia to live up to WTO requirements.

The report describes meetings with Russian officials to press Moscow to align its sanitary and phytosanitary measures with international standards. For example, the report notes that Russia has a near zero tolerance policy for tetracycline residues and a zero tolerance policy for ractopamine, which are more stringent than guidelines of the Codex Alimentarius.

The United States has also registered its concern on various other topics, including Russia’s lack of a standardized system for providing notifications on issues such as technical barriers to trade and a leasing program to supply agricultural equipment to farmers in Russia. USTR said it will continue to monitor these issues listed in the report.

The report was mandated under the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012. USTR was required by the act to submit the report within 180 days of the U.S. extension of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR). Russia acceded to the WTO on August 22, 2012, and the United States subsequently extended PNTR to Russia.

The full text of the USTR’s report is available here.