(moscowtimes)
- Negotiators aiming to speed up Russia's entry into the World Trade
Organization overcame objections from Georgia during talks in Geneva on Monday,
after Tbilisi threatened to block negotiations because of Moscow's decision to
boost support for Georgia's separatist republics.
Georgia's tough stance at the talks showed that Russia still faces an uphill
battle in its 15-year drive to join the world trade body. After reaching
a bilateral deal with the United Arab Emirates last week, Russia only needs
agreements with Georgia and Saudi Arabia, as well as approval from the
multilateral talks in Geneva, to join the WTO.
The WTO took a "great step forward" in its
membership talks with Russia in Geneva, said Stefan Haukur Johannesson,
chairman of the negotiations and Iceland's ambassador to the EU, news agencies
reported.
Yet, speaking to reporters in Tbilisi, Georgian First Deputy Economy Minister
Vakhtang Lezhava for the first time linked heightened tensions with Russia to WTO membership.
"We demand that the order from President [Vladimir] Putin for the
government to establish direct links with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which
contradicts WTO rules, be withdrawn," Lezhava said, Reuters reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined immediate comment.
Putin's order, signed earlier this month, stopped short of formally recognizing
the republics, which have functioned under de facto independence since a series
of separatist wars in the early 1990s.
The Russian government had hoped to join the WTO this year, but it is already
off-schedule after missing its deadline to sign the bilateral agreement with Georgia by the middle of last year.
"It's about trade," Timothy Spence, a Russia WTO expert at the
EU-Russia Cooperation Program, said of the bilateral agreement, "but
obviously there might be a political angle in the way they approach their trade
issues."
Putin has also called on the Cabinet to revive trade ties with Georgia,
instructing ministers early last week to hold talks aimed at lifting a ban on
imports of Georgian wine, mineral water and other products, as well as ending
visa restrictions and speeding up reconstruction of a border crossing.
Georgian wine and mineral water, two of the country's main exports, have been
banned since 2006, with Russia citing health concerns and critics pointing to
political motives. Russia cut travel and postal links with Georgia
following a spying dispute in 2006. Air and sea travel resumed earlier this
month.
Strained relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have grown
steadily worse in recent weeks. Russia denied reports late last week
that it was deploying additional peacekeeping troops to Abkhazia, but the
Foreign Ministry said it would use "all possible measures," including
a military response, to defend its citizens that live in the republics. Many
residents in the republics have Russian passports.
Spence said Russia faces potential WTO barriers from countries
other than Georgia, noting that previously sealed bilateral agreements -
notably a Russia-U.S. deal signed in November 2006 following 10 years of
negotiations - were not set in stone.
"Russia has signed agreements with the EU and the U.S., but all the i's still have to be dotted," he said. "If something
comes up, the U.S. and EU could go back to the drawing board."
Yet Spence, citing talks with Russian government officials,
said he believed Russia would achieve WTO membership this year. "They
feel much more confident this year than they ever have before," he said.