§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which members of the World Trade Organisation have still to implement fully the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Basic Telecommunications. [149080]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe WTO agreement on basic telecommunications came into effect on 5 February 1998. To date, 70 WTO members have adopted the agreement. The nature of the GATS agreement means that members are free to choose the pace and extent of any commitments they wish to make.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her policy is on admitting Russia to the World Trade Organisation; and if she will make a statement. [151251]
§ Mr. Mike O'Brien[holding answer 27 January 2004]The Government supports Russian membership of the WTO, on the right terms, as both in our interests and in the interests of Russian economic development. We support the negotiating position taken by the European Commission on behalf of the EU, and we call upon the Russian Government to respond positively to the points raised by the Commission on our behalf. We also call upon the Russian Government to address the issues that have been identified by their WTO Accession Working Party as material to the readiness and ability of Russia to implement WTO rules upon accession. Since December 2000, the UK has provided £1.2 million worth of technical assistance to Russia to support their efforts to accede to the WTO.