Joint Statement by President Barack Obama and President Dmitry A. Medvedev of Russia on Russia's Accession to the World Trade Organization

The United States and the Russian Federation reaffirm their deep mutual commitment to Russia's integration into the multilateral trading system through Russian accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). We welcome the renewed energy towards completing this process as soon as possible, which is in the clear interest of both our nations, and that of the global trading community. This is a trade policy priority for both nations.

Our governments will therefore both undertake the most vigorous possible efforts in the coming months--bilaterally and with other Members of the WTO--to build and sustain the momentum towards completing the remaining steps in this process. These steps have been clearly identified. We have agreed on approaches to resolve the small number of outstanding bilateral accession issues. Based on the significant progress achieved by our teams, including agreement on the treatment of state-owned enterprises, and provided that Russia fully implements the mutually agreed upon action plan for bringing Russian legislation into compliance with WTO requirements, we aim to settle these issues by September 30.

The United States commits itself to offering the Russian Federation its full support and best advice in the WTO accession process. The Russian Federation, meanwhile, commits to a government-wide effort to accelerate the adoption of measures that bring the country into conformity with WTO norms, in keeping with customary procedures for accession to the WTO.