PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) - World Trade Organization chief Michael Moore predicted Tuesday that Russia would be a WTO member by the next round of negotiations in 2003.
Speaking during a news conference before a two-day meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, Moore praised Russia for making "more progress in the last 12 months than the previous decade."
He said he believed Russia would be a member of the 142-country WTO by the next round of negotiations, scheduled to be held in September 2003 in Cancun, Mexico.
"They are talking 10 to 20 months, not 10 to 20 years" before Russia joins the WTO, he said in the seaside resort of Puerto Vallarta.
Moore added that he hoped many of the former Soviet republics also would join the WTO soon.
Russia wants the United States to declare it a "market economy," a designation important for its entry into the WTO, which sets and polices world trade rules.