Putin accuses US of delaying Russia's WTO membership
Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday accused the US of "artificially" holding back progress in talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation, adding to a chill in relations between the two countries.
Mr Putin made his comments during an annual meeting with Russian business leaders, otherwise largely devoted to domestic policy.
"Unfortunately we have received a list of questions from our American colleagues that require additional agreements that we thought had been settled long ago," the Russian president said, without specifying what areas the US demands covered. "The negotiation process is being artificially set back."
He added that Russia was still interested in WTO membership but "only on economically beneficial conditions".
Moscow had hoped to wrap up its 13-year-old talks on joining the WTO by the end of last year, then, after that deadline was missed, at least before it hosted the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations in St Petersburg in July.
But Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists, a business lobby group, told a press conference after the meeting with Mr Putin that even the July deadline looked doubtful.
He said Mr Putin's comments were "news both for members of the government and for business".
Russia has become increasingly impatient over the past year or so, as targets for WTO entry have slipped. Moscow now says it is aiming for the end of 2006 - but even this deadline is threatened, not only by failure to wrap up bilateral market access talks with the US but by sluggish progress in the multilateral negotiations dealing with Russia's compliance with WTO rules.
Agreement with Washington has long been held up over US demands for Moscow to allow foreign banks to open direct branches, not just Russian subsidiary companies as now. Russia says its financial sector could not withstand the competition and that it has security concerns about foreign banks opening branches. The US has also said Russia must clamp down on video and software piracy and cut import duties on aircraft.
The recent WTO accord between neighbouring Ukraine and the US has rubbed salt into the wound, raising the prospect that Ukraine may join the world trade body before Russia.
Still, Maxim Medvedkov, Russia's chief WTO negotiator, said last week that Moscow was not prepared to promise as much liberalisation as Kiev and would hold out for higher tariffs and more protection for its services sectors.
The Russian president's statement comes amid general frostiness in relations between Washington and Moscow.
A critical report on Russia by the US Council on Foreign Relations, and a revised US National Security Strategy with sharper language on Russia have provoked irritation among the Russian leadership.
Russia is the biggest economy not yet to be a member of the 149-nation WTO, but has struck all necessary bilateral deals with other members apart from the US, Australia and Colombia.
普京：美国“人为”阻挠俄罗斯入世
俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔?普京(Vladimir Putin)昨天指责美国“人为”阻挠俄罗斯加入世贸组织(WTO)的谈判进程，令两国关系降温。
普京先生是在与俄罗斯商业领袖的年度见面会上发表这番评论的。该年会主要讨论国内政策。
“不幸的是，我们的美国同行向我们提出了一系列问题，这些问题需要达成额外协议，而我们以为这些问题早就解决了，”普京表示。他没有说明美方问题涉及的具体领域。“谈判进程受到了人为阻挠。”
他补充道，俄罗斯仍然有意成为世贸组织成员国，但“前提是有利于经济”。
俄罗斯政府一度希望去年底结束长达13年的入世谈判，在错过最终期限之后，又希望至少在今年7月圣彼得堡八大工业国集团(G8)峰会前结束谈判。
由于错过了入世日期，俄罗斯在过去一年左右里已变得日益不耐烦。俄罗斯政府目前表示，目标是在2006年底结束谈判。但即便这个最终期限也有危险，危险不仅在于不能结束与美国的双边市场准入谈判，还在于有关俄罗斯遵守世贸规则的多边谈判进展缓慢。
美国要求俄罗斯允许外国银行开办直属分行，而不是像现在这样只准开设俄罗斯子公司。美俄两国因这一问题而长期未能达成协议。俄罗斯称，其金融部门无法抵御竞争，对于外国银行开办分行，它还有安全上的担忧。美国还表示，俄罗斯必须打击录像和软件盗版，并削减飞机进口关税。
世贸组织拥有149个成员，俄罗斯是尚未入世的最大经济体。除美国、澳大利亚和哥伦比亚外，俄罗斯已与各成员国达成了所有必要的双边协议。
