The European Union, the United States and Russia will hold detailed ministerial talks this week on Moscow’s bid to join the World Trade Organization (WT0).
EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton, United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Russian Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina will meet in the margins of the St Petersburg Economic Forum, which starts on June 4, according to Reuters news agency.
Russia, which has been trying for more than a decade to join the 153-member WTO, is the largest economy to remain outside the organisation. All WTO members must approve Russia’s membership bid for the country to join.
Russia has been negotiating entry into the WTO for more than 15 years. Following another round of talks in Geneva May 25-29, WTO officials said they would like to see Russia join the organisation as soon as possible, but acknowledged that problems still exist.
The EU and Russia also discussed Moscow’s WTO membership application at the EU-Russia summit in Khabarovsk on May 21-22.
Russia’s accession stalled after Washington put the issue on ice over Russia’s military incursion into Georgia in 2008. Now, the US administration of Barack Obama has grown warmer to Russia’s bid, allowing it to move ahead with accession plans.
However, Russia’s ban of all imports of EU pork, citing concerns over the spread of Mexican swine flu, is hampering Russia’s WTO bid.
Moves by Moscow to place duties on imports of timber and cars from the EU, and threats of further tariffs on other goods ranging from shoes to furniture have also hurt its WTO aspirations. Russian levies also remain in place on EU aircraft crossing Siberia, despite being dropped after an agreement was signed with the EU in 2007.
However, some analysts say that Russia’s economy has not only survived, but prospered outside the WTO.