German Gref and Commissioner of the European Union for Trade Issues Peter Mandelson met at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and discussed the multilateral talks process for Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization, as well as bilateral trade issues.
"The most contentious topic was trans-Siberian flights. We agreed on a timeframe for resolving this issue," Gref said.
The European Union is demanding that Russia cancel trans-Siberian overflight fees for foreign air carriers. The EU, which counts as a single country in the negotiations, is backing Russia's WTO bid and signed the relevant agreement in 2004, but threatened to withdraw from it if Russia did not cancel the overflight fees, which total $300 million annually. Russia has promised to scrap the fees in a decade.
