WTO Membership Could Open Floodgate Of Russian Guns & Ammo

Supracentral

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http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...ip-could-open-floodgate-of-russian-guns-ammo/

WTO Membership Could Open Floodgate Of Russian Guns & Ammo
Steve (The Firearm Blog)
Mar 12th 2012

Last December Russian finally obtained WTO membership. A reader of TFB explains how this could open the floodgate for Russian arms imports into the USA ...

First a short backgrounder on why some russian guns and ammo are sold in the US and others are not. Back in 1998 the US and Russia signed a Voluntary Restraint Agreement which said only certain firearms and ammunitions could be imported for commercial purposes. The Voluntary Restraint Agreement doesn't expire and was mutually agreed by both the US and Russia. It's why you don't see huge amounts of russian parts kits, true russian surplus ammunition (the stuff marked russia comes from Ukraine), or even Russian SKSes (which are also banned from import but were previously allowed prior to 1998, but you do see saigas, VEPRs, some models of Mosins, commercial 5.45, 7.62x39, and 7.62x54R. Russia still has a tremendous stockpile of soviet era ammunition and firearms. Not surprisingly they had nearly 10 times as much compared to many of the satellite states.

54r_1-tm-tfb.jpeg


Now recently I remember seeing that despite how for several years there has been impasse Russia finally got approval to join the World Trade Organization in December of 2011 after lots of wrangling between them and Georgia, who was already a member. I didn't think much of it then but it turns out the WTO requires the nullification of all voluntary export restraints (which includes the US-russian Voluntary Restraint Agreement) but allows each member country one exemption in a given industrial sector. It is unlikely that Russia will choose firearms/defense as their industry exemption because they can already create restrictions on it utilizing the state's national security infrastructure, much like how we do the same thing in the US with ITAR. It's more likely they'll put trade restrictions on things like energy, chemicals, steel, heavy industry that kind of thing. The very reason why the WTO is such a big deal is because it allows foreign corporations to sell goods and services within Russia without the previous barriers to entry.

All of this is to say that depending on who "owns" the old soviet era stockpiles of guns and ammunition we could very well see a flood of Russian milsurp ammo and parts kits that will make Yugoslavia and Romania's import of ammo and kits back in the early 2000s look minuscule. It's likely that Saigas and VEPRs would still be imported but at the same time I suspect Izmash Legion will leverage old gun stockpiles and get into the parts kit business, importing kits for every gun they sell and working with K-var or other US companies to make 922r compliant non-sporting rifles.

Now I would suspect if any of this does happen it will be 3+ years out, but none the less it will have significant impacts on the AK and AK ammunition markets, surplus 5.45, 7.62x39, and 7.62x54r will all go down considerably, perhaps even back to the era in the late 90s when you could buy tins for a little more than a nickel a round.

[ Many thanks to Daskrolator for the explantion. ]



So what do you think? Are we going to see another flood like we did in the late 1990's and early 2000's? Cheap ammo, kits and real Russian AK's?
 

te72

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You know, we could only hope. There's nothing at all wrong with freedom of choice, or having a relatively cheap source for ammo, right? I know a buddy of mine would be happy to hear this...
 

te72

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Nick M;1817977 said:
I don't think there is anything wrong with having an AKM, provided it isn't low grade Chinese fodder.
Isn't this post implying that they'd be Russian made though?
 

Nick M

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te72;1818039 said:
Isn't this post implying that they'd be Russian made though?

Which post? I didn't say anything about a Russian AK47. They haven't been made in a long time. AKM is "modified". That is fine by me, as long as it isn't cheap Chinese fodder.
 

SupraMario

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Nick M;1819356 said:
Which post? I didn't say anything about a Russian AK47. They haven't been made in a long time. AKM is "modified". That is fine by me, as long as it isn't cheap Chinese fodder.

I am honestly scared shitless to fire anything from china that has to contain pressure...their metals have always been complete shit.
 

te72

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Nick M;1819356 said:
Which post? I didn't say anything about a Russian AK47. They haven't been made in a long time. AKM is "modified". That is fine by me, as long as it isn't cheap Chinese fodder.
Mike's original post, not one of yours, I was wondering if the original post Mike made implied that this was specifically about Russian made weaponry.

SupraMario;1819414 said:
I am honestly scared shitless to fire anything from china that has to contain pressure...their metals have always been complete shit.
Like you guys, I wouldn't trust a Chinese gun to not 'splode all over my hands and face...
 

Adjuster

Supramania Contributor
I've shot Chi-com rifles, pistols and they are fine.

Many thousands of rounds of 9mm submachine gun rounds in my old PT99, prior to that ammo being banned from sale here. It was hot, never failed to fire, and IIRC, about 3 to 4 cents per round. (Think buying .22LR ammo cheap, 500 rounds for 18.99.)

I'm very interested in a few rifles that we can't get here now, or are too expensive for what they are.
PSL in 7.62x54R.
Ak varient in 9mm subsonic. (Current Spetznaz weapon of choice, it's based on a 7.62x39 case, but necked out to 9mm using the 39mm case, and similar mags in the famillar and reliable Ak action/platform.) Think of a 9mm bullet, 200gr to 400gr going anywhere from 900fps to 2300fps.... Very deadly suppressed weapon.

Any decrease in the cost of MilSurp ammo is a good thing, and more guns on the market is good too in this day and age of hard to find PSL's for example.
 

Nick M

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Adjuster;1829797 said:
Any decrease in the cost of MilSurp ammo is a good thing, and more guns on the market is good too in this day and age of hard to find PSL's for example.
This is what I see as the big benifit.