Brussels, 04/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Meeting on the sidelines of the economic forum in Saint Petersburg on 4 June, European Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and Russian Econmic Development Minister Elvira Nabioullina agreed that Russia's accession to the WTO, for which the process has been ongoing since 1993 albeit somewhat disturbed by the Russian-Georgian conflict in August 2008, should take place by the end of 2009. “I welcome the commitment Minister Nabiullina has shown today. We have a common understanding on the gaps that need to be bridged now. We have agreed that WTO accession should be completed before the end of this year”, Ms Ashton assures in a press release. Ms Nabioullina for her part was pleased that she and the commissioner had reached a “concrete agenda”. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev expressed irritation in April that the process was taking such a long time. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave assurance of Russia's commitment to WTO accession despite the economic crisis. Although the EU completed bilateral discussions with Moscow in May 2004 and undertook to comply with the multilateral process at the WTO aimed at fixing trade rules to which Russia will be subject upon membership, some questions remain outstanding. These are: - Russian wood export tariffs, Russian duties imposed on freight transport by rail across Russia, and Russian restrictions on imports of meat and milk. These issues continue to hamper the conclusion between the EU and Russia of a bilateral agreement on access to the market of goods and services, which Moscow has already sealed with about 60 WTO member nations. (E.H./transl.jl)