MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Economic Development suggests initiating a discussion on competition distortion at the forthcoming 12th WTO Ministers Conference and updating rules of the organization for this challenge, the ministry’s press service told reporters, citing Minister Maxim Reshetnikov.

Progress on existing negotiations should be made at the forthcoming WTO conference but also decisions should be taken on areas of future activities, including discussions on competition distortions, according to the minister.

"We believe such areas [of future work — TASS] comprise the topic of competition distortions in particular. Some people believe the causes of such distortions are in providing specific kinds of government support even if such support is not regulated in the current rules of the organization. For others this is in vesting multinational companies with various non-market preferences, which leads to their gradual ‘capture’ of functions belonging earlier exclusively to states and international government institutions. There is a need to update WTO rules for this new challenge but consistently, starting from a discussion of the concept coverage," Reshetnikov said.