Russia's WTO accession to promote Russia-China relations

Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will have positive impact on Russia-China relations, Russian Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov said here Wednesday.

When answering Xinhua's question in a news briefing, the minister said that Russia's WTO membership would undoubtedly boost bilateral trade with China.

"The trade and customs barriers were lowered from September 1... And Russia is becoming a more transparent country and is now much clearer to investors, including the Chinese," Belousov said.

Meanwhile, the minister said the two sides need to further improve their bilateral trade structure, while acknowledging that the improvement of the structure would not be reached overnight.

"The roots of the structural imbalance lie deeply; they are related to the structure of our economies. We will have to work for a long time to improve the trade turnover structure," Belousov said.

However, he stressed, "such a task has been set."

Russia officially joined the WTO on Aug. 22, becoming the last major economy to accede to the Geneva-based organization.

After the WTO accession, Russia will have to gradually lower its average tariff ceiling to 7.8 percent from the current 10 percent, with the agricultural tariff down from 13.2 percent to 10. 8 percent. Tariff for industrial products will also be reduced from 9.5 percent to 7.3 percent.