STOCKHOLM — Russia wants to join the World Trade Organization quickly but has not decided whether it will do so as a separate state or in a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday.
His remarks at a summit with the European Union contradicted comments by Russia’s EU envoy, who said Moscow would join on its own but coordinate entry with its two neighbors, ensuring that confusion remains over Russia’s entry bid.
“One thing which is still outstanding and which will be resolved in the near future is … whether [Russian entry] will be part of a process of our customs union joining the WTO or we will do it separately but agreeing on a position with our partners,” Medvedev told a news conference in Stockholm.
“In my opinion both ways are possible,” he said. “For us the main thing is speed. Whatever way is faster, we will take it.”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in June that Moscow would join the WTO only as part of the customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
“We want the WTO talks to go quickly and be concluded soon,” Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told reporters before the talks began.
The customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus will come into force Jan. 1, 2010, creating common external tariffs and a single market for 165 million people.
Joining the WTO would open markets to Russia, the biggest country outside the 153-country organization, and open Russian markets to WTO member states.
Moscow’s WTO talks have often stalled on various disputes and before joining the WTO — through the customs union or on its own — Russia must resolve several trade and tariff issues.
Leaders of WTO countries say accession would allow Russia to trim import tariffs while remaining competitive, and they have urged it to increase its efforts to join.
But Russia has stiffened restrictions on a series of imports, including a 30 percent duty on new foreign cars, to protect domestic industries during a recession that wiped out a tenth of the country’s economy in the first half of the year.
Russia is not alone in taking protective action — many others rushed to aid their domestic producers, resulting in rising anti-dumping investigations in the past year — but WTO economies have been restrained by the organization’s rules on import restrictions.
“One of Russia’s concerns is anti-dumping procedures, quotas and technical barriers used by the EU against the Russian goods and also obstacles to Russian investment,” a Kremlin official told reporters before the summit.
European Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton said after talks with Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina that she hoped WTO entry for Russia would pave the way to a broad economic agreement between the EU and Russia.
“We’ve been pushing very hard and been very supportive for Russia to get into the WTO as soon as possible. From there we can do a free-trade agreement, but we really need that underpinning of WTO membership from Russia,” she said.
Ashton said the EU wanted to ensure Russia removed tariffs that were supposed to be temporary.