A Russian working group on World Trading Organization accession will hold talks on the country's commitments to access to its services market this week, Moscow's chief WTO negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said on Monday.
"This will be the first time that a consolidated list of Russian commitments on access to the services market is being considered. This is an important element of the negotiation process," he said, adding that the informal multilateral consultations would be held on October 25-26 in Geneva.
Six states have so far presented their requests to the list and after their consideration "the total volume of disagreement and the degree of the document's closeness to the final version will be clear," he said.
Russia completed bilateral negotiations on services market access two years ago.
"I hope that by the end of the year we will present for discussion a consolidated list of commitments on access to the goods market," Medvedkov said, adding the consultations would also cover about 10 sections of a final report which had to be changed due to Russia's participation in the Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Multilateral consultations to analyze Russia's support for agriculture, one of the stumbling blocks in WTO negotiations, will take place on October 27. Russia will also hold a number of bilateral talks on meat imports this week, Medvedkov added.
Another week-long multilateral consultations round on more adjusted report sections and a 2011 negotiations schedule will start from December 6.
Medvedkov said a forecast by Lawrence H. Summers, economic adviser to U.S. President Barak Obama, that Russia may join the WTO within the next 12 months, was realistic.
MOSCOW, October 25 (RIA Novosti)
