US may suffer over absence of normal trade ties with Russia

TOYAKO, Japan, July 7(Itar-Tass) - The interests of American
exporters may suffer over the absence of permanent normal trade relations between the US and Russia.

This opinion was expressed by the Russian
president's aide Sergei Prikhodko, commenting on the coming meeting
between the Russian head of state and the US president in Japan. Dmitry Medvedev and George Bush will meet on July 7 on the sidelines of the G-8 summit.

"Regrettably, the problem of granting Russia Permanent Normal Trade
Relations (PNTR) status in trade with the US remains unsettled so far,"
Prikhodko noted. "This is, above all, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, over
which the status now operates on a temporary basis," the president's
assistant explained.

"Ditching of this amendment and discriminatory limitations as a whole
will help to switch over in our bilateral trade relations to WTO rules.
Otherwise interests of American exporters will be affected," Prikhodko
warned.

The presidential assistant also noted that Russia "supposes to
complete procedures on joining the WTO by the year-end". "The US
administration renders us assistance in the multilateral negotiations," he
emphasised.

Prikhodko also noted that Medvedev and Bush would examine energy
security at their meeting. "Taking into account Russia's role in ensuring
global international energy security and its aim at consolidating the
status of a stable supplier of energy resources to world markets, the
importance of the bilateral energy dialogue will rise," the Russian
president's assistant claimed.