Russian business is interested in the agreement on free trade zone with the European Union in accordance with WTO-plus formula, which means, some exceptions for the most sensitive sectors, declared the head of RUIE Alexander Shokhin on the Russian-French economic forum. "Me, as a person, who was responsible in Russian government, in the 90s for signing of the first agreement on partnership and cooperation between Russia and the European Union, I can say that we are interested that next basic agreement between Russia and the EU was an advanced agreement. Not an agreement just between members of the World Trade Organization, but such one that would be implemented in the accordance with the formula that Russian President and European Union leaders agreed on several years ago. The formula is WTO-plus”, he said.

      "It is virtually a free trade area with some exceptions", said Shokhin, adding that first and foremost it is a matter of energetics. "But in all other areas we are confident enough to move towards a regime similar to the free trade regime, and to create additional opportunities for cooperation in the framework of EU-Russia summits," he declared.