SYDNEY, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has the backing of the United States in its bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the economics minister, German Gref, said Friday.
Russia has been seeking WTO membership since September 2005 and needs to complete bilateral talks with those WTO members, which have trade issues with Moscow, as well as finishing multilateral discussions within the WTO Working Party of 50 nations.
Speaking to journalists in Sydney after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush, the minister said: "A joint timeframe has been worked out for further progress," toward Russia's accession to the WTO in the near future, "and this timeframe was approved by our U.S. partners, and heads of the World Trade Organization."
Gref said Russia still had to complete bilateral talks with Cambodia and Saudi Arabia, adding that it was unlikely that Russia would be in a position to join the world's largest trade body by the end of 2007 as planned earlier.
"Russia has completed an unprecedented number of talks, and we have every chance of joining the WTO in 2008," Gref said.
The minister said Moscow was planning to hold 15-20 rounds of negotiations by the end of September, as well as prepare a final version of the WTO Working Party's report, required to join the 151-member organization, and necessary to complete all talks by the end of the year.
He added that a new round of consultations should be held with Georgia in September. The South Caucasus nation withdrew its approval for Russia's bid following tensions with the former Soviet ally over Moscow's ban on key Georgian imports, and over its relations with Georgia's breakaway regions which Tbilisi considers supporting separatists.
But experts say that from the legal point of view Georgia will not be able to block Russia's accession.
"We have held several rounds of consultations with our Georgian colleagues and scheduled others for September. We hope Georgia's position will change from the political to pragmatic," Gref said.
The minister said his negotiations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum highlighted the issue of state subsidies, intellectual property rights, and export duties on timber. The EU, Russia's main trading partner, objects to Moscow's plans to gradually levy a prohibitory duty on round timber.
The latest round of talks on Russia's WTO bid was held in Geneva in late July and focused on customs regulations and free trade zones. Russia's state agricultural subsidies were also high on the agenda as the most sensitive issue. WTO members consider Russia's projected subsidies of $9.2 billion per year to be excessive.
