EU envoy welcomes Georgia-Russia agreement over WTO accession

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The European Union envoy to the South Caucasus country of Georgia on Friday welcomed an agreement between Georgia and Russia on the latter's WTO accession.

"We are very pleased that Russia and Georgia appear to be close to an agreement which, in our view, will strongly benefit both sides," Philip Dimitrov, the EU ambassador to Georgia, said in a statement.

"We give full support to the Swiss-mediated efforts that recently made finding the solution likely. The European Union would very much like to see a decision on Russia's accession to WTO ministerial this year. We encourage the parties to finalize the deal in the coming days."

The EU envoy made the statement after Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Tornike Gordadze said at a briefing on Friday that Georgia had agreed to a proposal by Switzerland regarding Russia's accession to WTO.

But no details concerning the proposal were made public.

In another development, Stefan Johannesson, chairman of the WTO working party, told member states that the negotiating documents had been sent out on Thursday.

"I have informed members that the Russian Accession Working Party will meet for a formal session on Nov. 10 and 11 when we intend to complete our work and forward to ministers our recommendations for their decision at the December (WTO) ministerial conference," Johannesson said. "WTO members strongly supported these recommended next steps."

Johannesson also said that he would schedule an informal session of the working party for Nov. 7 and 8 to prepare for the final formal session at which all remaining differences are expected to be resolved.