The United States and the European Union rejected on Wednesday Russian accusations that Washington and Brussels were to blame for the collapse of Moscow's unilateral bid to join the World Trade Organisation. "Let's be clear on this - this is a Russia-created crisis and one they have to resolve," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Reuters.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said in an interview on Tuesday that the EU and the United States were responsible for Moscow's decision to ditch unilateral talks for a joint WTO bid with Kazakhstan and Belarus. "We reject this claim. We have been facilitating this process. We have been helpful and very supportive of Russia's bid," Lutz Guellner, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton, said.
Russia, the biggest economy outside the 153-member global trade watchdog, is now negotiating entry with its former Soviet neighbours as part of a proposed new customs union. The move, announced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, came just days after Russian officials had held talks with US and EU trade representatives. It has left the WTO secretariat in confusion.
"This is as creative a response from Russia as the one they gave after what were very constructive and positive talks in St. Petersburg," Kirk said, referring to Shuvalov's Tuesday comments and Russia's changed bid for WTO entry. "We thought we had taken positive steps and made progress," he said. Kirk and Ashton will hold bilateral talks with Russian Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina on the sidelines of an OECD meeting on Thursday in Paris.
"We were surprised by Russia's new approach ... we still need to better understand what this means for Russia's WTO accession process and what exactly Russia's intentions are," Guellner said. "Commissioner Ashton will be seeking detailed clarification at her meeting in Paris."
Russia has been negotiating to join the WTO for 16 years but Moscow says the United States and European Union have made unreasonable demands for entry. Shuvalov said the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan were more active in pursuing the customs union with Russia than WTO negotiating partners had been in pursuing Russia's accession to the trade body.