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WTO membership 'a must' for Russia — expert

"From the inside, we have the right and the opportunity to fight and defend our opinion," Sergey Katyrin noted

YEKATERINBURG, July 12. /TASS/. Russia must remain in the World Trade Organization (WTO), head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Katyrin told TASS on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Innoprom international exhibition.

"It’s a must [Russia’s membership in the WTO]. Since this organization exists, we must be there. If we are there, we know what is going on there and can express our point of view. If we leave, everything that happens there will be hidden from us. What they decide, what they say about us - we will be unaware and unable to raise objections," Katyrin said. "From the inside, we have the right and the opportunity to fight and defend our opinion," he noted.

Progress with the import substitution "is fairly good," Katyrin noted. "It seems to me things are going quite well from the standpoint of import substitution. There are still plenty of problems: with logistics, with finding those to perform replacement. Nevertheless, Belarus provided very serious support to us in this aspect; they currently filled many vacated niches," he added.

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