Russia would not secure membership of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in 2006 and was unlikely to do so next year, the
country's chief negotiator with the world trade body said
yesterday.
"Russia's joining the WTO won't take place this year. Probably,
joining the WTO won't take place next year," Maxim Medvedkov was
quoted by Interfax News Agency as saying.
Medvedkov made the remarks at a business conference in the
Siberian city of Tyumen.
"We are not ordered to finish talks by a certain date. That is
why one cannot say with certainty that we will become a WTO member
in mid-2007. We have stated this many times," he said.
"So, we have time to prepare ourselves for membership in the WTO
and weigh all the pluses and minuses we'll get," he added.
The Russian delegation said earlier that Russia could join the
WTO by the summer of 2007 and wind up all entry talks by the end of
2006.
Russia so far has not completed its WTO entry talks with the US,
Costa Rica, Georgia and Moldova.
Russia is the only major world economy that remains outside the
149-member WTO.
Russian agencies reported that the biggest obstacle to Russia's
membership was its failure to reach a bilateral agreement with the
US.
(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2006)
