The article substantiates the impact of the institutional factor on the development of regional international economic relations. The scope of the study is regional international economic activity (IEA), the subject- matter is the role of the institutional factor in its development. The study purpose is to develop a scientific approach for the assessment of the institutional factor impact on the development of region’s international economic relations. The hypothesis is that the targeted efforts of all participants of IEA of the region (business, authorities, local community) to strengthen of theese components of the institutional factor, which have a strong influence on the regional socio-economic development. A methodological approach for the assessment of this influenceis developed. It includes determining three elements of IEA institutionalization — agreements, organizations, events. A three-dimensional model is proposed for the coordination of these elements with 3 groups of countries — developed, developing and CIS, including the Eurasian Economic Union, and also with basic indexes characterizing the qualitative and quantitative contribution of region’s IEA into its socio-economic development. This model is tested on the example of the Sverdlovsk region of Russia for 2003–2015. That has allowed to define various kinds of the effects from strenthening the IEA institutional component, which are expressed in the increase of the export of the region, improvement of its investment attractiveness, the diversification of regional economy as well as the the generation of additional jobs and tax flows increase.

The authors have considered both the role of territorial subjects of the Federation in the foreign trade activity of Russia and the characteristics of conditions for the implementation of foreign economic relations by the Russian regions. The hypothesis of the research suggests that in the current conditions of Russia’s participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and new geopolitical challenges in the foreign trade activity, the territorial subjects of the Federation more and more actively realize their constitutional right on international economic relatiens. The role of Russian regions in the development of the foreign trade activity of Russia constantly rises as a single center in modern conditions, is not able to manage all matters relating to foreign trade activity arising in the concrete region of the state. The relevance of the article consists in the need to investigate the change of conditions for the implementation of foreign economic activity by territorial subjects of the Federation as during the current period, regions play more important role in the development of the foreign trade activity of Russia. The authors assessed the impact of WTO, whose member Russia became in 2012 on its foreign trade. The assessment has shown an absence of any real notable positive or negative consequences. The politicization of world economy is the characteristic of the present stage of its development. Thus, the world markets are more dependent on political factors than on other ones. The results of the conducted research can be applied and used for the development and realization of the regional model and strategy of foreign trade activity. The future research will be focused on the development and improvement of the model of the implementation of foreign economic activity by the territorial subjects of the Russian Federation.

The article analyses characteristics of the participation of the Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) member states in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its impact on the Eurasian economic integration. We described the contradictions in the regulatory frameworks between the WTO agreements and regional trade agreements. Moreover, we offered the ways to overcome these contradictions. We demonstrated the role of the economic and legal exemptions that operate on the EAEU’s domestic agrarian market in connection with the accession of Russia and Kazakhstan to the WTO. On the one hand, these exemptions were shaped under the influence of tariff commitments made by Russia in the field of agriculture. On the other hand, they were formed due to Kazakhstan’s subsequent entry into the WTO and the discrepancy of its tariff obligations for agricultural products with Russia’s tariff obligations in the conditions of functioning of the EAEU’s common customs tariff. We explored Kazakhstan’s tariff commitments to the WTO. We have proved that for the EAEU’s further effective development, its participants need to initiate compensation negotiations with other WTO members in order to equalize the overall level of the import duties on the EAEU territory. The study’s results can be applied for harmonization of the tariff rates of the EAEU members. It is necessary for achieving the most effective joint economic development and implementing the coordinated foreign trade policy in various economic sectors, including agro-industrial policy and agricultural development of the EAEU states.