Georgian and Russian officials will meet for a next round of the Swiss-mediated talks over Moscow’s WTO entry terms on October 20 in Geneva, a Georgian negotiator said.
There has not been a progress in previous rounds of talks as Russia refuses to accept mechanisms to secure “full transparency” of trade across the disputed borders, Sergi Kapanadze, Georgia’s deputy foreign minister, told Civil.ge on Saturday.
He said Russia wanted to allow monitoring of only those goods, which might be imported from Russia into Georgia via breakaway regions, but not of those goods whose final destinations are located inside the breakaway regions.
Interfax news agency reported on October 14, quoting Russian chief negotiator on WTO, Maksim Medvedkov, that informal meeting of the WTO working group was scheduled for October 26-27 and final formal session of the working group was expected for November 10.
Negotiations on the accession of a new member to WTO are held within a working group, uniting countries that have unsettled trade issues with a candidate country. The Swiss-mediated negotiation between Russia and Georgia are held separately.
Kapanadze said without a deal with Georgia the working group on Russia’s WTO accession would not be able to formally meet to approve the draft accession document, a voluminous report detailing conditions for joining the organization.