MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which earlier agreed to form a customs bloc and seek joint accession to the World Trade Organization, will hold talks on the issue in Geneva next week, Russia's WTO negotiator said on Thursday.
"Approaches will be defined toward continuing the process of the countries' accession to the Customs Union, and the entry of the Customs Union into the WTO," Maxim Medvedkov said.
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Tuesday that Russia would request that the WTO stop Russia's national-level accession talks process.
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin earlier said the three countries would start WTO accession talks in 2010 as members of a single customs union.
Russia has been negotiating its entry into the WTO for more than 15 years.
To date, Russia has completed mandatory bilateral negotiations with 60 countries concerned, but has yet to synchronize positions on several issues, including agriculture, export duties for timber, and regulation of some state-controlled companies.
Russia is the world's only major economy still outside the WTO. Consent from all 153 WTO members is necessary for a state to join the organization.
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