The European Union’s trade commissioner ruled out on Friday finalizing a strategic pact with Russia before it joins the World Trade Organization and warned Moscow against introducing new protectionist measures.
“WTO accession paves the way to the broader free trade agreement we need,” Catherine Ashton told Reuters in the city of Khabarovsk where Russian and EU leaders met on Friday.
The wide-ranging strategic deal, intended to replace a 1994 pact puts trade as a cornerstone of relations that may cover all areas of relations between Brussels and Moscow, but is still under negotiation.
Russia’s long-delayed accession to the WTO and stalled talks on the broad-range Russia-EU pact were issues at the summit which focused on efforts to overcome the global economic crisis.
The European Union has voiced concerns about Russian protectionist measures including a hike in export tariffs on timber and restrictions on foreign gas imports which were adopted to support domestic industries in the crisis.
“Russia needs to demonstrate it really is keen to move to WTO accession and part of that is not imposing any new duties, which in any event damage business,” said Ashton. “We want to see them not impose new duties,” she added.
Her remarks followed an angry statement by the Kremlin’s chief foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko, who said on Wednesday Russia was losing patience with delays in WTO adoption and could scrap self-imposed trade restrictions.
Russia has been negotiating to join the trade body for more than 10 years, but has not yet completed talks and remains the largest economy outside it, with no signals that the situation could change anytime soon.
Ashton, who held talks with Russian Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina, said that despite recent signals of frustration, she saw no signs of Russia abandoning attempts to join the WTO. “There’s nothing to suggest at the moment that Russia really does not want to join the WTO, from the conversations I’ve had. What I’ve heard this morning is a desire to speed up.”
TRADE, FLU
Russia is the third largest trade partner for the EU, which is dependent on Russian energy imports. The EU had a €70 billion ($97.65 billion) trade deficit with Russia in 2008.
The two sides are now working on the details of the new partnership agreement, but differences have stalled the talks.
Russia is seeking a short document laying down key problems while the European Union insists the treaty should include detailed agreements on key sectors like energy and trade rules.
Asked if the EU-Russia agreement could be concluded without Russian membership of the WTO, Ashton was clear: “It is contingent, not least because all the issues for me have got to be within the context of WTO rules, it’s just a much more straightforward and simple process on trade.”
Ashton said she was unhappy about Russia using an outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus as a pretext for cutting meat imports from European countries, a measure she described as protectionist.
“Certainly, we have already said to them that the idea that they use the problem in the world of swine flu as an excuse to cut pork imports from places like Spain or the UK is not acceptable at all,” she said.
Ashton joined the European Commission last year when the former British Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, returned to join the government of Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
A new Commission team will be announced later this year and Ashton said she would like to stay on, if asked by Brown. “I’m in the hands of my Prime Minister, if he asked me to stay I would love to stay, but it’s for him to decide and he may have other options he wants to consider and that’s fine too.”
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