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Obama welcomes Russian WTO membership

Other News Materials 11 November 2011 05:47 (UTC +04:00)
US President Barack Obama on Thursday welcomed the World Trade Organization's greenlighting of Russian membership, dpa reported.
Obama welcomes Russian WTO membership

US President Barack Obama on Thursday welcomed the World Trade Organization's greenlighting of Russian membership, dpa reported.

"This is a significant day for US-Russia relations and for our commitment to a growing, rules-based global economy," Obama said.

"Russia's membership in the WTO will lower tariffs, improve international access to Russia's services markets, hold the Russian government accountable to a system of rules governing trade behavior and provide the means to enforce those rules," Obama said, noting his longstanding support for Moscow's membership in the Geneva-based free-trade body.

A WTO panel gave the go-ahead Thursday to Russian membership, and the body's leadership is to formally consider Russia's application at a ministerial conference on December 15-17. Russia would become the organization's 154th member.

The announcement on the WTO's website came one day after Russian and Georgian negotiators in Geneva signed an agreement ending a long-running trade dispute between the two countries.

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