Brussels, 09/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - No sooner had the EU and Russia reached bilateral agreement, after years of discussions, paving the way for Russian accession to the WTO than Georgia has threatened a road block with its right of veto. Brussels, not wishing to let this opportunity slip, has called for dialogue between Moscow and Tbilisi. What further discussions are needed to finalise the accession of Russia, the world's largest economy still outside the WTO, in 2011?
The 24 November bilateral EU-Russia agreement on access to the goods and services market, and resolving the final disagreements over timber export duties and rail duties, was formalised through the signing of a memorandum of understanding in Brussels on 7 December on the sidelines of the EU-Russia summit, thereby clearing the way for swift Russian accession to the WTO. Immediately after this agreement confirmed at the WTO, Georgia threw a spanner in the works, letting it be known that it might object. “Georgia has a right of veto and Russia will not be able to join the organisation without our vote,” Niko Mchedlishvili, spokesman for the Georgian prime minister said on Wednesday 8 December. “Georgia is ready for negotiations. But our position on the legalisation of customs checkpoints on the Psou River and the Roki Tunnel is unchangeable,” he added. Tbilisi is thus making Russian accession conditional on joint customs arrangements on a dam over the River Psou in Abkhazia and the Roki Tunnel in South Ossetia. Discussions on this issue have, since the Russia-Georgia conflict of 2008, been plagued by political tensions spoiling relations between the two countries.
With these difficulties over customs issues, the bilateral discussions between Russia and Georgia, then, could be the final stumbling block to Russia's WTO accession. To date, Russia has tied up bilateral agreement on access to the goods and services market with 61 WTO member countries, including very recently with the US. At a technical meeting at WTO headquarters in Geneva on 8 December, the EU called on Russia and Georgia to “resume dialogue to resolve the pending issues”, according to a source close to the WTO. The EU call was backed by the head of the working group concerned, who expressed willingness to act as mediator - a clear indication that the WTO wants to conclude negotiations which opened in 1993, a record for the organisation.
Apart from removing the Georgian obstacle, a number of matters remain to be settled before these long talks can be brought to a conclusion. Firstly, the 61 bilateral agreements with member countries have to be consolidated so that the list of Russian commitments can be drafted. On the multilateral level, there are three outstanding issues: agricultural subsidies and export duties on wheat, health and plant health measures and technical trade barriers, and restrictive trade measures adopted by Russia to help manage the crisis. (E.H./transl.rt)