Russia to negotiate WTO accession with Cambodia

07/ 02/ 2007

MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will start negotiations on its long-awaited accession to the global trade body with Cambodia in two weeks, Moscow's top negotiator said Wednesday.

To join the World Trade Organization, Russia must complete bilateral talks and sign bilateral protocols with all its trading partners in the organization. Moscow hopes negotiations with the Southeast Asian nation will mark the end of its 13-year marathon toward WTO membership.
"Cambodia has shown an interest in the Russian market," said Maksim Medvedkov, who heads the trade negotiations department in Russia's economics ministry.

Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Cambodia, which became a WTO member in October 2004, had requested bilateral negotiations on Russia's WTO bid.

Trade between Russia and Cambodia currently totals only $5 million, with Russia importing Cambodian textile products and exotic fruit and vegetables, Medvedkov said.

Russia has completed bilateral talks with all 56 interested members of the 150-nation WTO, and plans to sign a protocol with Guatemala in the next two weeks, the official said. It is unlikely that any of the remaining 94 members will request talks with Moscow, he added.

"Most countries with which we have not conducted negotiations either have no interest in our market or agree to the current terms of entering our market," he said.

In late January, Russia completed talks in Geneva with another WTO trade partner and former Soviet ally, Georgia, which had withdrawn its signature from a bilateral protocol after Moscow banned key Georgian exports last March.

An official in Russia's economics ministry said after the Geneva talks that Georgia had removed all its objections but one - the closure of what it calls illegal customs checkpoints on the Russian border with Georgia's two self-proclaimed republics. Tbilisi says Russia must stop trading with the breakaway regions, and that all goods must pass through checkpoints run by the central government.

Medvedkov said the issue of Russia's trade with Abkhazia and South Ossetia was related more to customs administration than market access.

Russia signed a WTO deal with Moldova, another Western-leaning ex-Soviet nation that is already a member of the trade body, late last year after lifting a similar ban on Moldovan wine and meat exports.

In November, Russia secured a long-desired bilateral agreement with the United States, removing the last major obstacle to its WTO membership.

Russia also signed bilateral protocols with El Salvador and Costa Rica January 24, but has yet to sign a protocol with Guatemala.

The Economic Development and Trade Ministry expects to complete multilateral talks on the country's admission to the WTO by mid-2007.