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Russia sends representatives to WTO trade ministers' meeting

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MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian officials met with WTO trade ministers on Monday, attending the ministers' meeting as observers, a spokesman for the country's Economics Ministry said.

Trade ministers from the 30 largest WTO member countries are meeting in Geneva to discuss agricultural subsidies, and customs duties on industrial and agricultural products, and will also try to fix a date for a conference aimed at achieving a breakthrough in the Doha round of talks on liberalizing global trade.

Russian Economics Minister Elvira Nabiullina and Maxim Medvedkov, Russia's chief negotiator at WTO talks, are not attending the Geneva talks.

"Russia is not yet ready to become a WTO member, so such events are attended by Russian envoys to international organizations as expert observers," the ministry spokesman said.

The Doha Round began in Qatar's capital in 2001, but has stalled due to disagreements over farming subsidies in the U.S., the EU and Japan, and trade tariffs in emerging economies.

Alexei Portansky, director of the information center on Russia's accession to the WTO, told RIA Novosti that joining the 152-member bloc before the Doha agreement is signed is of strategic importance to Russia.

"Otherwise, [WTO] rules will change, and we will have to start all over again," he said.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who visited Russia in June, said the country would become a WTO member by November 2009, and could complete accession talks later this year. However, he warned that although Russia had already concluded 90% of the necessary negotiations, it still had a number of issues to settle.

Georgia, which became a WTO member in 2000, is threatening to block Russia's accession to the WTO unless Moscow halts support for its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Ukraine joined the WTO in May 2008, and has since been seeking access to Russian oil and gas pipelines.

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