WTO: 2005 NEWS ITEMS
21 February 2005
ACCESSIONS
Russia's membership talks make
good progress
The 26th meeting of the Working Party for the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO, held 16th and 17th of February, made good progress on substantial issues although the chairman of the WP, ambassador Stef醤 J骽annesson, of Iceland, said that 搒till a lot of work has to be done? He also noted that 揷learly progress on the bilateral market access side is accelerating?
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The main focus of the work of the two-day meeting was the
examination of a 揅ompendium?that consolidates Members' written proposals
and drafting suggestions, including commitment language for the Working
Party report. The Russian delegation was able to provide detailed and
substantive responses to points and proposals of Members. The extensive
Russian inputs helped to clarify the factual situation, as well as to reveal
where gaps remain, whether related to information or legislation or
enforcement.
While pinpointing several areas in which there are difficulties in the
bilateral and multilateral work with Russia, the US said that the meeting
was 搈uch more efficient than we've seen for some time? and Australia said
it was 搊ne of the best (meetings) we can recall in terms of substance?