Russia is unlikely to join the World Trade Organisation before the middle of 2011 under its new scheme to take membership along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Friday. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said this week that Russia was dropping its 16-year bid to join the World Trade Organisation and would only join in partnership with its two neighbours, crushing any hope of accession this year.
"The membership of the customs union (between the three countries) will finally be completed by the middle of 2011," Kudrin told a briefing at a meeting of Group of Eight finance ministers in southern Italy. Asked if that meant Russia would now not join the 153-strong trade body before then, Kudrin nodded his head.
Kudrin said he had talked to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about Russia's plans when the two met on Friday. Earlier, the US Trade Representative said it was surprised by Russia's decision to bid for membership together with two other former Soviet republics, adding that the move would complicate Moscow's accession process. Kudrin admitted that all the trade pacts signed as part of Russia's sole bid would have to be signed afresh, but that did not mean they would all have to be renegotiated. "Ninety percent of what was achieved in Russia's talks with the WTO will pass into the new agreements. Russia went through the talks on sensible conditions," he said.
"I think that the position of Belarus and Kazakhstan will be close to Russia's position." Some of the still unresolved issues in Russia's sole WTO bid included duties on the export of Russian timber and bans on the import of meat from some regions affected by H1N1 virus.