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Obama supports Russian membership in WTO

10 December 2010 09:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday voiced strong support for Russian membership in the World Trade Organization as he laid out an overhaul of export controls to help U.S. high-tech firms increase foreign sales, Reuters reported.

Obama aims to double U.S. exports within five years. He announced a long-delayed free trade deal with South Korea on Saturday, and said deeper economic ties with Russia were also in U.S. interests.

"I believe that Russia belongs in the WTO and we should support all efforts to make that happen," Obama said at a meeting of his Export Council of advisers. "Welcoming Russia to the WTO would be good for them, but it would also be good for us and good for the global economy."

Russia’s $1.2 trillion economy is the largest outside the WTO. Its goal is to join by the end of next year.

The World Bank has estimated its entry could increase Russia’s gross domestic product by as much as 3.3 percent in the medium term and 11 percent in the long term.

Obama said he thought Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was "doing important work trying to reform and move Russia forward on a whole host of issues, and I told him that the United States would be a partner with him in that effort."