Verklaring van bijeenkomst Rusland en de EU over toetredingsthema's tot de WTO (en)

The negotiators of the Russian Federation and of the European Commission i have concluded the bilateral talks on key outstanding elements in the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO i. The reached understanding complements the results of the bilateral negotiations concluded in 2004 with regard to important aspects of Russia's export duty regime and railway fees. The negotiations resulted in a balanced outcome on all the issues concerned by these bilateral talks, in a spirit of taking into account mutual interests.

Both sides are confident that this agreement will greatly facilitate the overall process of accession of Russia to the WTO, and they re-affirm their shared commitment to continue working in a constructive and co-operative spirit on the remaining questions in this multilateral process to achieve this goal as soon as possible. They are aware of the remaining multilateral issues to be resolved in such areas as agricultural trade, technical regulations, including sanitary and phyto-sanitary rules, and the investment regime in the automotive sector, in order to complete this process. They express their confidence, however, on swift progress on this path.

Both sides stressed their strong expectation that the rapid accession of Russia to the WTO will greatly contribute to the opening of new opportunities to do business with and in Russia and strengthen the international competitiveness of the Russian economy by harmonising its economic regime with global trading rules. They agreed to conduct their current trade relations in a manner reflecting the spirit of the agreements reached between the EU i and Russia in the context of Russia's WTO accession negotiations.

For further information

EU Trade Relations with Russia:

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/bilateral-relations/countries/russia/