Russia, US make no breakthrough in WTO talks

By Staff
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Geneva, Oct 14: Russia and the United States made some progress today in talks to clear a key obstacle to Moscow's membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), but there was big no breakthrough, Russia's top negotiator said.

''We are progressing, but we will not get to full completion now because some issues are still pending,'' Maxim Medvedkov told Reuters.

Both countries have said that they want to wrap up their negotiations by the end of October, but differences remain even though both sides declined to go into detail about the latest efforts to overcome them.

Agriculture and issues concerning intellectual property protection are known to be amongst the outstanding difficulties.

Russia, which has been seeking entry for 13 years, needs bilateral deals with all member states that seek them as well as an overall pact with the full membership that certifies that its trade rules and regulations are in line with WTO norms.

The United States is the only major economy still to reach an individual deal, although Georgia recently re-opened its bilateral negotiations because of what it calls ''unjustifiable'' restrictive Russian measures against its exports.

Georgia has also told the chairman of the working party overseeing the WTO entry talks that it would permit no further meetings of the negotiating body until its problems with Russia were resolved.

Relations between the two former areas of the Soviet Union have long been tense. Moscow cut transport and post links with the smaller Caucasian nation after Georgia's brief detention of four Russian army officers on spying charges last month.

Bilateral negotiations with the United States would continue to night and possibly tomorrow morning, Medvedkov said.

''After that we will return to capitals and continue by phone and internet,'' he said, adding that there was no date yet for a further meeting.

Asked whether the end-October target was still possible, Medvedkov said: ''Of course, I am always optimistic.'' But even assuming a bilateral deal can be struck soon with the United States, reaching a final entry accord with the full WTO could take a long time, trade officials have warned.

China, the last big economy to join the WTO in 2001, took over 18 months to wind up negotiations with its working party after the last of its bilateral deals was concluded.

The European Union yesterday added an new hurdle when it warned Russia that it must phase out the fees it charges airlines to fly over Siberia before its WTO bid could succeed.

Reuters

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