HANOI, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - The leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries have spoken for Russia's soonest joining the world's leading trade body, a source in the Russian delegation said Saturday.
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 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."
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the United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Moldova, and renegotiate its entry with Georgia, which has withdrawn its signature.
