Oct 20 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's economic adviser Larry Summers said on Wednesday that Washington was very encouraged by progress on Russia's World Trade Organization bid and hoped Moscow would complete WTO accession within a year. [ID:nLDE69J083]
The following are key facts about Russia's 17-year-old bid to join the WTO.
* Russia applied for membership in the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), in June 1993 and held the first round of working party accession talks in 1995. The first draft report of the working party, a major foundation for prospective membership, was circulated in 2004.
* Russia, whose $1.2 trillion economy depends heavily on natural resources exports, is the largest country still outside the 153-member organisation. Its bid is the longest ever; China joined the WTO in 2001 after a 15-year process.
* Russia is seeking to diversify its economy away from the natural resources sector and says WTO membership will improve access to global markets for its goods.
* The World Bank estimates that WTO entry could increase the size of the Russian economy by as much as 3.3 percent in the medium term and 11 percent in the long term. The World Bank expects Russian import tariffs would fall from 14 percent on average to 8 percent.
* Sceptics say Russia stands to lose out from membership. Russian magazine Expert estimated that as a member Russia will lose domestic market equal to $90 billion to foreign companies while benefits for domestic companies will amount to $23 billion.
* Russia was worst hit by the 2008 economic crisis among global emerging economies due to its dependency on oil exports. In response, the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched a massive campaign to support domestic industries.
* At the height of the crisis Russia introduced a series of protectionist measures such as higher export duties on imported cars, agricultural machinery and petrochemical products. The government also provided generous state support to industry.
* Putin surprised the West and threw WTO negotiations into disarray by announcing in June 2009 that Russia would join as part of a nascent customs union with ex-Soviet neighbours Kazakhstan and Belarus.
* The customs union was created on Jan 1, 2010 with the three counties pursuing their WTO accession talks separately. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan aim to create a common economic area without borders in 2012.
* President Barack Obama, who has sought to "reset" long-strained ties with Moscow, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in June 2010 they had instructed their negotiators to resolve technical issues by the end of September to clear the way for Russia to join the WTO.
* Russia resumed accession working party negotiations in June 2010 with agriculture subsidies, intellectual property rights, import tariffs on pork and cars and new export duties on copper and nickel as the remaining stumbling blocks.
* Russian Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said on Sept 30, 2010 she had agreed with members of the Cairns group of agricultural exporters that Russian agriculture subsidies could be doubled to $9 billion a year in 2011-2012.
* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Oct 1 Russia and the United States had met the Sept 30 deadline to resolve key hurdles. He said accession could be agreed within 2-4 months and that the accession procedure could take six to 12 months after that, indicating membership was likely in 2011.
* Putin, seen as Russia's paramount leader, struck a more cautious note, saying negotiations could drag on indefinitely.
* A senior Russian official said the removal of the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik amendment, which tied U.S. trade relations to emigration rights for religious minorities, would serve as an indication that U.S. intentions were sincere. (Writing by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Ralph Boulton)