Dates of Russia's Entry to WTO to Be set before end of April

The dates of Russia's entry to the WTO are to be set before the end of April, Deputy Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Maxim Medvedkov told the press.

According to him, next week will see the launch of bilateral negotiations with Russia's major trade partners on the country's WTO entry.

The total of 22 countries are to negotiate with Russia in March-April. The negotiations will show if Russia will join the World Trade Organization before the end of the year or some time later, Medvedkov noted.

Russia has no "prescribed time-scale", the deputy minister stressed. "The negotiations will last till an agreement is reached, which might take anywhere from six months to a couple of years," he said.

According to Medvedkov, the negotiations are expected to focus on energy tariffs, finance and insurance.

Russia has fulfilled the undertaken commitments, Medvedkov stressed recalling that on March 4th the Russian government introduced the law "On state regulation", the last bill of the so-called WTO-package. The total of six bills were submitted to the State Duma. The deputy minister expressed hope that in the course of the spring session the State Duma would consider the majority of them in two readings.