Russia stood on the verge of joining the World Trade Organization in November 2006, even as trading partners questioned whether Moscow truly operated by free-market rules. US Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush were set to sign a bilateral trade agreement that weekend, following a brief summit in Moscow, though WTO officials cautioned that full accession remained far from guaranteed.
To gain membership, Russia needed bilateral deals with all 150 WTO nations and had to satisfy a multilateral working party that it functioned as a genuine market economy. Sticking points included state ownership of major industries, rampant piracy, a Russian ban on US beef, and an ongoing dispute with Georgia. European nations were also uneasy about Russia's natural gas export policies, after a pricing dispute with Ukraine earlier in the year had briefly halted winter supplies.
A striking example of Russia's customs troubles involved 167,000 Motorola phones seized in March. Officials first called them counterfeits, then reversed course, destroyed 50,000 over alleged radiation concerns, and later reported 30,000 had gone missing from government storage.
Despite the complications, Russian trade ministry officials told reporters that accession could come within months. American businesses stood to gain quickly from lower Russian tariffs on agricultural equipment and aircraft, while Russia's own advantages were seen as longer-term.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.