Russia’s delegation led by Maxim Medvedkov, chief trade negotiator, is leaving for Washington on Wednesday.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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US Wants More Details on Pork, Oil and Siloviks
// A new round of talks on Russia’s accession to the WTO starts tomorrow
The Russian delegation is setting off tomorrow for a new round of talks with the United States on Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization. The parties do not expect much progress, though. Old discussions will be continued while debates on Sakhalin-2 and Russia’s domestic situation will surely follow.
Russia’s delegation led by Maxim Medvedkov, head of the Economic Development’s Ministry trade negotiations department, is leaving for Washington on Wednesday. The new round of talks promises to be a tough one. The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office gives wary comments. “We will try to find a solution and will be working hard on all other issues,” the representative’s spokesperson Gretchen Hamel said last Friday. Andrey Kushnirenko, deputy head of the trade negotiations department at Russia’s Economic Ministry made quite a pessimistic forecast. He believes that Russia’s accession to the WTO may drag till 2009 if the bilateral protocol between Russia and the United States is not signed by this October.
The two parties have an unpleasant aftertaste from recent events related to the WTO. In August, Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref threatened to ban all preferences on U.S. meat exports to Russia in case the bilateral protocol with the United States on Russia’s membership in the WTO is not concluded by late October.
October 2006 is not an accidental date. U.S President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July that the bilateral protocol would be signed before October 26. However, Sean Spicer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said in an interview with Kommersant that “there was no firm agreement between the presidents” and German Gref’s threats “look at least silly.”
American trade negotiators made it clear to their Russian counterparts before the meeting that there are more pending issues between Russia and the United States that the Russians think. German Gref said at the State Duma last week that issues of agriculture were the only problems left to be agreed on with the U.S. Lifting restrictions that Russian sanitary authorities imposed on American pork imports is among them. The minister still hopes that “a compromise with the United States will be reached by mid-October.”
The United States, however, thinks otherwise. New U.S. Deputy Trade Representative John Veroneau said last Friday that Moscow must lift barriers on U.S. meat imports and take more steps against intellectual piracy before the bilateral protocol on Russia’s accession to the WTO is signed. “They [Russia] have had made progress, but frankly speaking, I think there are many more things to be done,” John Veroneau said.
Russia’s claims on the Sakhalin-2 project are likely to become another focus of debates. The U.S. Department of State has already expressed its concern over the situation even though that the conflict has no direct connection with the WTO membership. However, Sakhailin-2 may top the unofficial agenda of the Washington talks.
Quite possibly, Russian will try to play a domestic card at the talks which will largely be just a formal occasion. It is worth mentioning that Igor Shuvalov, Russian president’s aid, met Western experts in August and said that the failure of the WTO talks may play right into the hands of “siloviks who are hungry for power.” Perhaps, this threat would be more significant for the United States that German Gref’s chicken blackmail.
Alexey Shapovalov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 26, 2006
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