There are disagreements between Russia and the European Union regarding the tariff protection of the car and aircraft industries, including financial services and telecommunications.

The European Commission made six demands on Russia: to raise internal prices for natural gas, to end Gazprom’s monopoly on gas exports, to lift restrictions on gas transit, to allow foreign investors to build pipelines in Russia, introduce equal prices for the transit of gas for domestic users and for exports, and to cancel gas export tariffs. Russia sees these demands as unacceptable. In October 2003, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy met with Russian Economy Minister German Gref and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, but no compromise was reached at the talks.

Mr. Gref said the EU had made enormous demands on Russia. He stressed that Russia was losing a lot because of the EU expansion. In particular, the country’s trade turnover will drop by millions of dollars due to “restrictions against Russia”. The EU’s demands on Russia were discriminatory, the Economy Minister said, and they were absolutely unacceptable. Meanwhile, officials in the Russian Economy Ministry believe that Russia should join the WTO in 2004. According to acting Deputy Economy Maxim Medvedkov, EU officials also consider it necessary and possible to complete the process before the end of this year. In his opinion, the talks could end as soon as this spring.