US Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans said on Wednesday that Washington would "aggressively" support Russia's application to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as part of a strengthening partnership in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
"This is a very important time in the development of the relationship between the United States and Russia, and indeed a very important time as all civilised nations unite in this world," Evans told journalists at the end of a four-day visit here.
"In terms of what Russia will gain," Evans predicted "a continuation of the strengthening partnership" forged by Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin at summits in Ljubljana and Genoa in June and July.
"As to WTO, we have indicated our strong support for moving aggressively for Russian accession into the WTO," the commerce secretary added. "In terms of an absolute timeline I'm not sure ... but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later."
Putin has linked Russia's unprecedented support for the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan with possible moves to speed up its WTO members, and is likely to press for such a concession when he meets Bush in Shanghai at the weekend.
Putin said on Wednesday that the September 11 tragedy had "only reinforced the understanding and trust" between the United States and Russia, and expressed hope that the Shanghai talks would boost this "positive tendency."
"We openly backed the US in their struggle against terrorism, and are ready to support this campaign in specific areas -- intelligence-sharing and humanitarian aid," the president said at the Kremlin.
Putin won a significant concession after his visit to Brussels earlier this month when the date for outlining preconditions for Russian membership was brought forward to November from spring 2002.
Russia became a candidate in 1993 to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), replaced two years later by the WTO in 1995, and is hoping to be admitted by 2003 despite lingering doubts about its current trading system.
However, Evans praised Putin's economic reforms during the past 18 months and said his visit to Moscow, at the head of US business delegation, indicated the Bush administration's commitment to helping Russia move towards a market-based economy.
Predicting that Russia could be given the official status of a country with a market economy within a year, Evans hailed the new diplomatic partnership between the two Cold War-era adversaries.
"I believe that September 11 was an attack on our country that has united the entire world against evildoers, against terrorism. Russia is an important part of the civilised nations around the world that are uniting against evildoers," he added.
But he also noted that many US investors still had concerns about the rule of law in Russia, its banking structure and accountancy standards.
Evans also forecast that the US economy would soon recover from what he described as the "mild shock" of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
He said he had confidence in the "longer-term fundamentals" of the US economy, which was already slowing prior to September 11.
"I expect some time in the next 12 months for us to return to the kind of acceptable growth rate we experienced in the 1990s -- which would be somewhere in the 3.5-percent range," Evans said.
By the same token, he believed that oil prices, which had already been "softening" before last month's attacks, had now "found a floor," adding: "The supply-and-demand balance for oil in the world today remains very tight."
Crude oil prices have slumped to around 20 dollars a barrel in the wake of the terror attacks on New York and Washington, as markets react to slowing demand from increasingly recession-hit economies around the world -- Moscow, (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
