Following a long and difficult mediation by Switzerland to overcome objections from Georgia to Russian membership in the WTO (World Trade Organization), an agreement was reached (November 2) to allow Russia full membership by the end of the year.

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who mediated the negotiations in Moscow with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakachvili, told journalists on her return to Geneva that the talks had been conducted in a “generally positive atmosphere.” For his part, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy stated that he was “reasonably optimistic” regarding a final accord.

Georgia, a WTO member since 2000, had threatened to veto Russia’s bid for membership unless Moscow agreed to allow it more control over trade in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Russian-controlled enclaves inside Georgia that provoked a bloody confrontation in 2008.

The Swiss news agency ATS said the compromise negotiated by Switzerland made no reference to the legal status of the two secessionist countries.

With the world’s largest reserves of oil and natural gas, Russia is the biggest economy in the G20 and according to the World Bank, joining the WTO could boost its $1.5 trillion economy by more than 3 percent in the medium term.

Speaking to state media, Maxim Medvedkov, Russia’s WTO negotiator, said that Moscow and Tbilisi had agreed on trade data between the two countries and that issues in the two rebel regions would be passed on to an independent auditor.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and his European Council counterpart, Herman Van Rompuy, have urged finance ministers attending the G20 Summit in Cannes, France, to "send a strong message to the WTO December Ministerial to finalize Russia's WTO accession by the end of this year."

Russia's admittance to the WTO would be a welcome boost for an organization struggling hard for relevance in the face of the stalemated “Doha round” of multilateral trade negotiations that began in 2001.

(Photo © DR)