No US-Russia deal on Russian WTO entry bid

St Petersberg (Russia), July 15: Russian and U.S. negotiators failed in marathon talks that ended on Saturday to strike a bilateral deal to pave the way for Russia to join the World Trade Organisation, both sides said.

''A final agreement has not been reached, but significant progress was made,'' said Sean Spicer, spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

''The talks in St Petersburg have ended, and they did not end in success,'' Russian trade negotiator Maxim Medvedkov told Reuters.

Schwab's team negotiated into the early hours on Saturday with Russian counterparts headed by Economy Minister German Gref, but could not reach an understanding on admitting U.S. farm produce to the Russian market, a U.S. source said.

Negotiators working virtually non-stop since mid-week had been under pressure to reach a deal before presidents George W.

Bush and Vladimir Putin held a working meeting at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg.

Medvedkov said the two sides had agreed to hold further talks in the weeks ahead.

Schwab has a heavy schedule of bilateral meetings at the St Petersburg summit. With the stalled Doha round of global trade talks forcing its way onto the agenda, it would be difficult to devote further time to Russia's WTO aspirations.

Russia is the largest country outside the 149-member trade club, and a bilateral deal with Washington would remove the last major obstacle to its accession.

Intellectual Property

The talks reached a breakthrough on Thursday on financial services, but failed to clinch agreement on trade in farm produce, protection of intellectual property rights and duties on aircraft imports.

''We weren't able to find a solution on the package we were discussing,'' Medvedkov said.

Rampant video and music piracy in Russia has infuriated the U.S. entertainment industry and, ahead of mid-term elections this autumn, leading Congressional Democrats have lobbied against Russia's WTO bid.

In Washington, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told reporters late on Thursday that Russia must do more on intellectual property rights (IPR) for the two sides to reach a WTO deal.

''We're looking for a firm commitment from Russia to enforce IPR. They have done some of that. We would like to see a lot more,'' he said.

Russian officials have said, however, Washington was setting tough demands and they would not sign a deal at any price.

Reuters