"I think it will be only reasonable if Russia and the EU will sign a new protocol after Russia joins the World Trade Organization," Alexei Kudrin told journalists.
The current Russia-EU agreement will be valid until the end of 2007, and the sides have said they would prefer signing a new agreement instead of prolonging the old one. Multilateral talks on Russia's joining the WTO are to be completed in mid-2007.
"The old agreement [with the EU] already contained the provisions that are now being signed in the framework of Russia's accession to the WTO," Kudrin said, adding that presently Russia has more liberal cooperation rules with the EU members than with other countries.
"Now this regime will be signed in the framework of the WTO with all countries, and that's why we can consider new opportunities with the EU which are going beyond the WTO frames," he said.
Russia has completed all bilateral talks on joining the World Trade Organization and will finish multilateral negotiations by next summer, the country's chief negotiator said Friday.
To join the WTO, Russia must sign bilateral protocols with the United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Moldova, and renegotiate its entry with Georgia, which has withdrawn its signature.
"To date Russia has ended all negotiations with WTO nations on access to commodity markets," Maksim Medvedkov said. "Now multilateral negotiations still remain, and we plan to finish those by next summer."
