Russia's WTO membership bid makes scant progress

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GENEVA, Sept 20 (AFP): Trade negotiators meeting here yesterday steered clear of the main issues in Russia's bid for World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership, agreeing to reconvene in November, as the United States warned that Moscow's accession bid was now in question.
With the relationship between Russia and western countries under strain since the Russian military surge into Georgia in August, the session lasted just over an hour and left the big questions for later.
But a western diplomatic source stressed that the session all along had been planned as a "meeting on procedure" to set the agenda for the rest of the year.
Talks are to resume in the week of November 3, he added.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice cast doubt on whether Russia, "increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad," will continue to be brought into the global economic fold.
In excerpts of a speech due to be delivered later Thursday, Rice said that because of its August 7 invasion of Georgia and other behavior, "Russia's bid to join the WTO is now in question."