The disagreements between Washington and Moscow on ways to settle the current political crisis in Syria will not stand in the way of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the White House said.
“We support Russia’s accession to the WTO and we support measures that need to be taken to help bring that about,” Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday.
“The fact that we have disagreements with Russia on some matters -- Syria being one of them right now -- does not mean that we cannot move forward with the Russians on areas where we agree or where we are able to see more eye-to-eye,” Carney said.
The accession package of the Russian Federation to the WTO was signed on December 16, 2011 at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the world trade body. Russia becomes a member 30 days after the WTO is informed that the accession package has been ratified domestically.
The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, may ratify the country's accession to the WTO by July 20.
After the ratification of the accession package by Russia, the U.S. Congress is expected to debate the abolition of the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which limits trade with Russia and is an obstacle to the application of WTO rules between the two countries.
