Moscow will not renegotiate a key co-operation agreement with the European Union until Russia secures entry to the World Trade Organisation, a top minister said Sunday in a rebuff to Brussels.
"I hope that after our entry to the WTO we will seal a new agreement with the European Union, which would allow us over the course of five to seven years to move towards a free-trade zone," Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Sunday, RIA Novosti reported. Gref was addressing a meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the southern city of Kazan.
Earlier this month the European Commission warned it would not support Russia's long-running bid to join the WTO before the end of the year unless Moscow showed it was ready to resolve outstanding trade issues.
The European Union has struck a deal with Russia paving the way for WTO entry but Brussels still needs to make a final recommendation to the 27 member states to secure access.
In recent months Russia and the EU have failed to renew talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which envisages the eventual establishment of an EU-Russia free trade area. A new agreement is being blocked by EU member Poland because of a trade dispute with Moscow. The current agreement runs out this year but can be extended.
The WTO is just one of several thorny issues including energy exports and a bitter dispute over a Soviet war monument in Estonia that have stretched the Moscow-Brussels relationship to breaking point in recent weeks. Russia is the biggest economy in the world outside the WTO and has been trying to join the global trade body since 1993. Since coming to power in 2000, President Vladimir Putin has set membership as a key goal.