Russia And Us Should Conduct Trade Negotiations Before Russia Enters Wto, Believes Russian Ex-finance Minister Alexander Livshits

Russia and the United States should conduct special negotiations on trade before Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, said Alexander Livshits, deputy director general of the Russky Alyuminy (Russian Aluminium) company and former Russian Finance Minister, at the news conference on Friday after the completion of his business trip to the United States. According to his estimates, next year, that is, before its entry into the World Trade Organization, Russia might be given the status of a country with a market economy. As a result, in the period before the official entry into the World Trade Organization, the date of which has not been named up to now, a potentially complicated situation may arise for Russia, the situation fraught with a loss of the whole segment of the market. According to Livshits, not being an official member of the WTO, Russia would have to meet in full all the demands made on all members of this organization. Theoretically, he said, in this period the rivals would be able to stop any export of Russian goods to the United States. Negotiations with the USA, believes Alexander Livshits, must become a thing of a special concern for the Russian government. In his opinion, the aim of these negotiations must be "the adoption of such a decision which would ensure the just rules of trade for the period before entering the WTO, the rules that would not make Russia vulnerable as a trade partner."