US, Russia announce long-awaited WTO deal
By John Davis,WNS US Business Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The US and Russian governments said Friday they had reached a pact to permit Moscow finally to join the World Trade Organisation after 12 years of often stormy negotiations. The bilateral deal should be signed at an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam next week, both sides said, in a step that should lead to far-reaching liberalisation of Russia's fast-growing economy. "We have an agreement in principle and are finalizing the details," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement, calling the deal "an important step in Russia attaining membership in the WTO". She said she hoped to sign the agreement with Russian Economic Development Minister German Gref next week in Hanoi, on the margins of a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries.
Both US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are due to attend the APEC summit in the Vietnamese capital on November 18-19. "Both sides have agreed on all principal conditions for this agreement," Gref's ministry affirmed in a statement issued in Moscow. "Both delegations are currently holding internal consultations in order to ensure the signing of a bilateral agreement on market access during the APEC summit in Hanoi." The main outstanding question in the bilateral talks revolved around US meat imports to Russia. US negotiators also pressed hard on intellectual property protections and access to Russian financial services markets. But Moscow had often complained that the deal was being held up by political objections in Washington, after stinging attacks by Vice President Dick Cheney on Putin's political and energy policies. And the Democrats' triumphant return to control of the US Congress in elections Tuesday could complicate efforts by American businesses to share in the fruits of Russia's WTO accession.
Russia is the only major world economy that is not yet a part of the WTO, and it needs the bilateral support of the United States before it can accede to the 149-member club. Russia has been trying since 1994 to join first the WTO's precursor, the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), and then the WTO. Schwab said the hard-fought bilateral deal was "a clear indication of Russia's efforts to participate fully in and benefit from the rules-based global trading system". US industry welcomed the deal. Frank Vargo, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said it would boost US exports to Russia, which last year enjoyed an 11-billion-dollar trade surplus over the United States. "The United States and Russia are the only two continental, ocean-to-ocean economies in the world and a lot of the technology and equipment US companies have designed for our huge economy will find a ready market in Russia as their economy moves forward," Vargo said.
posted by wnsworld @ 11:19 PM
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