Russia has completed bilateral talks with 55 of the 58 members of the World Trade Organization. Negotiations are continuing with the U.S., Moldova and Georgia.
"On September 27, the Russian delegation will fly to the U.S. for bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the WTO," said Maxim Medvedkov, who also heads a department for trade talks at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
Negotiations with the U.S. broke down in July over differences on agriculture, specifically meat. The development was unexpected, since the main point of contention throughout the talks had been access of financial services companies to the Russian market and the lack of intellectual property rights protection in Russia.
Moscow wanted to sign a protocol with Washington at Russia's debut summit of the Group of Eight nations, but the deadline was moved back to October.
The U.S. currently enjoys concessions under bilateral agreements signed in 2005, which will remain in force until 2009. The agreements raise quotas on U.S. supplies of poultry meat to 1.2 billion metric tons, of beef to 450,000 tons and of pork to 502,000 tons.
Russia's economics ministry has warned that it will review the meat quotas for the U.S. if WTO talks in October fail.
Medvedkov also said the economics minister, German Gref, met with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson Friday.
"The meeting highlighted trade and economic cooperation between Russia and the EU, and prospects for Russia's accession to the WTO," he said.
