Russia may join WTO next year, US official says
By Guy Faulconbridge |
October 21, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RUSSIA could join the World Trade Organization within a year after talks on Moscow's 17-year-old bid made good progress, US President Barack Obama's senior economic adviser said yesterday.
"We are certainly hopeful that well before 12 months from now, this process (Russia's WTO accession) will have been completed," outgoing White House National Economic Council director Larry Summers said.
Summers, in Moscow for talks with officials including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's senior adviser on foreign economic relations, cautioned that it was "not yet time for celebration."
"But we can take extraordinary satisfaction in the progress that has been made," he said. "The end is in sight."
Russia has been seeking WTO membership since 1993 and with a gross domestic product of US$1.2 trillion is by far the largest economy outside the 153-member organization.
Full US support for Russia's bid - the longest accession talks in the WTO's history - would pave the way for entry and mark Russia's integration into the world economy 20 years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
"In many ways this is the final bit of business completion from a post-World War II architecture in which Russia had not been included," Summers said.
Getting Russia into the WTO has become a goal of the "reset" in ties that Obama has forged with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after the arguments which characterized the presidency of George W. Bush.
Talks on Russia's WTO entry accelerated after a June summit in Washington when Obama and Medvedev urged negotiators to buckle down and reach a deal by the end of September 2010.
Officials on both sides say that deadline has been broadly met but have given few details on what exactly has been agreed or on what remains to be agreed.
US officials said the issue of meat import quotas remained as well as the diplomatic complexities of the multilateral accession process in Geneva, the headquarters of the WTO.
Summers' comments about the potential accession time-line indicate that officials are seeking Russian entry ahead of Russia's March 2012 presidential election and the November 2012 presidential election in the United States.
"We are certainly hopeful that well before 12 months from now, this process (Russia's WTO accession) will have been completed," outgoing White House National Economic Council director Larry Summers said.
Summers, in Moscow for talks with officials including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's senior adviser on foreign economic relations, cautioned that it was "not yet time for celebration."
"But we can take extraordinary satisfaction in the progress that has been made," he said. "The end is in sight."
Russia has been seeking WTO membership since 1993 and with a gross domestic product of US$1.2 trillion is by far the largest economy outside the 153-member organization.
Full US support for Russia's bid - the longest accession talks in the WTO's history - would pave the way for entry and mark Russia's integration into the world economy 20 years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
"In many ways this is the final bit of business completion from a post-World War II architecture in which Russia had not been included," Summers said.
Getting Russia into the WTO has become a goal of the "reset" in ties that Obama has forged with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after the arguments which characterized the presidency of George W. Bush.
Talks on Russia's WTO entry accelerated after a June summit in Washington when Obama and Medvedev urged negotiators to buckle down and reach a deal by the end of September 2010.
Officials on both sides say that deadline has been broadly met but have given few details on what exactly has been agreed or on what remains to be agreed.
US officials said the issue of meat import quotas remained as well as the diplomatic complexities of the multilateral accession process in Geneva, the headquarters of the WTO.
Summers' comments about the potential accession time-line indicate that officials are seeking Russian entry ahead of Russia's March 2012 presidential election and the November 2012 presidential election in the United States.
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