Russia's WTO entry not close: U.S. Commerce chief

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Bush administration official on Tuesday played down any connection between Russia's military action in Georgia and Moscow's long-term bid to join the World Trade Organization.

"We've worked with Russia in terms of the WTO accession and they still have a ways to go. So it's not as though they're close to it. They still have some work to do before they get to it," U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an interview with Reuters.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has called for a review of Russia's bid to join the WTO after Moscow took military action against Georgia in a conflict over South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia.

"We should ... convene other international forums to condemn this aggression, to call for an immediate halt to the violence and to review multilateral and bilateral arrangements with Russia -- including Russia's interest in joining the World Trade Organization," Obama said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday, but Tbilisi cast doubt on that announcement, saying Russian fighter jets had just bombed two villages.

Gutierrez's comment that Russia was not close to finishing its WTO membership bid was at odds with other recent Bush administration statements.

During a visit to Moscow in June, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said negotiations were nearing their end.

"We are making progress on the last details of the negotiations. I think it is important to finish this up," Paulson said.

Reuben Jeffery, U.S. under secretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, said in April Russia's WTO membership "can and should happen in the near term."

The United States has already reached a bilateral market access deal on the terms of Russia's entry into the WTO.

Moscow must reach an overall accord with the 153 members of the WTO covering areas such as intellectual property rights protection, where the United States has a strong interest, before its entry is complete.

Georgia is already a member of the WTO and has threatened to block Russia's admission.

Once a final accession deal is negotiated, the United States would be obligated under WTO rules to lift a Cold War-era trade provision known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment.

That measure tied normal trade relations with the Soviet Union and other centrally planned economies to the rights of Jews and other religious minorities to emigrate freely.

Russia has been in compliance since 1994, but U.S. lawmakers have insisted that Moscow finish negotiations on joining the WTO before voting to lift the measure and establish permanent normal trade relations.

U.S. refusal to lift the Cold War measure would not block Russia from joining the WTO. But it would allow Moscow to legally deny U.S. companies from sharing in the market-opening concessions it has made to join the world trade body.

Gutierrez said it was premature to say whether this week's fighting damaged Russia's chances of winning PNTR.

"As I mentioned before, Russia has quite a bit of work that they need to do before their accession, before we have to cross that bridge," he said.