Russia's membership of a Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus will not hinder its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said on Friday.
"Russia must join the WTO, and the Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan is not an obstacle in this sense," Buzek said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the 26th EU-Russia summit on December 7 that Russia would join the WTO separately, but as part of the Customs Union.
Russia, the only major economy outside the global trade body, moved one step closer to joining the WTO when it signed a memorandum of understanding on economic issues with the European Union on December 7.
Moscow has been negotiating WTO entry for 17 years, although an average accession period for a nation is five to seven years. Russia is now likely to join the organization next year.
In June 2009, the prime ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus decided to join the WTO as a single customs territory, but the idea was later dropped as the countries had different degrees of readiness for membership.
Soon after the Brussels's EU-Russia summit, Medvedev said that "Russia's admission to the WTO is in fact becoming a reality."
BRUSSELS, December 10 (RIA Novosti)
