Brussels, 04/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - At Wednesday's bilateral Summit in Brussels, the European Commission undertook to speed-up preparations for Russia's membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Like the United States, the Union promised Moscow to quickly present it with a complete list of its demands, in all areas covered by the negotiations. These initiatives should allow, from the very beginning of next year, for the multilateral talks, currently in deadlock, to be resumed.
In a declaration published at the end of the Summit, Commissioner Pascal Lamy stipulated that, "as Russia's main trading partner, the Union strongly backs its aim of joining the WTO. Consequently, we have decided to provide further momentum to this process by committing ourselves to preparing a complete list of our demands that will be handed to Russia by the end of the year, at the very latest. We have received from the United States the assurance that it will do likewise. Work in Geneva concerning Russia's membership of the WTO will whence receive further impetus at the beginning of next year."
The day before, in a speech before Belgian businessmen, Vladimir Putin called on Europeans to back Russia's application, complaining of the unreasonable demands some are making of Moscow. "It goes without saying that we shall only join the WTO under conditions that are common to all (…) We shall not accept demands that have never been made of other" applicant countries, he declared without going into details. This application, deposited in Geneva in 1993, has stumbled on demands regarding the adaptation of trade legislation, a reduction in agricultural subsidies, the abolition of tariff barriers, and the respect of intellectual property rights, among the preconditions for concluding work.
In Moscow, where he was on a trip last week, American Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick said that Russia would receive the same treatment as the other applicant countries. He is also said to have promised to speed-up bilateral negotiations and considered that the process could enter its final furlong at the beginning of next year, according to statements taken up in a press release published by the services of Alexis Kuolrin, Russian Finance Minister.