"Indeed, we once set the deadline which has not been met but the process is underway. Ever more negotiators come to realize that the world is losing rather than gaining from Russia's status of no-WTO member. We have however to admit that Russia too does not benefit from this position," he added.
In this respect, Russia is the most discriminated country against, after China. "Naturally, if we were WTO members we would have seen a different attitude and could have used the WTO as a platform for handling all the problems. As long as it is otherwise, we have to make deals on the bilateral level," he said.
"Russia is firm in its stand that we will not enter the WTO at any price, that is we shall never adopt the terms that are obviously harmful for our economy and our citizens," said Kaulbars.
He cited the example of the restructuring of natural monopolies. "We should not make any hasty moves here to prevent our population, our consumers from being deprived of the services they are entitled to now," he said.
Russia has completed talks with 14 partners, including 25 countries of the European Union (which is seen as one trade partner), on access to commodity markets and with four partners on the services.
"We hope that additional documents will be signed during an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation session at the end of the month and during the Russian president's visit to Chile and then to India," he said.
