EU gives green light to Russia's accession to WTO

Russia and the European Union have signed a protocol, which marked the end of bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.

Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy signed the document in the presence of President Vladimir Putin and the EU top officials.

The protocol contains the parties' agreements on lowering import tariffs, on the conditions of banking, insurance and telecommunications services' access to the Russian market.

European experts arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, i.e. two days prior to the Russia-EU summit, to complete WTO talks and sign a relevant protocol on the first summit day, thereby fulfilling their earlier promise.

Russia had already signed relevant protocols with some of the WTO members, including Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Israel.

Russia is expected to finish tariff-related WTO talks with Japan and South Korea in a month's time.