WTO approves Russia's membership;

WTO approves Russia's membership; India, US welcomes this development  

The World Trade Organization gave its second and final approval for Russia's membership in the trade body after a record 18-year quest to join.

"The ministerial conference so agrees," said Nigerian Trade Minister Olusegun Aganga, who is chair of the eighth WTO ministerial conference.

The Russian parliament will have up to 15th June next year to ratify the accord and bring it into force.

Moscow's lead negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said earlier he expected the deal to be ratified "early next year."

Russia applied to join the trade body in 1993 but talks dragged on and its brief war with Georgia in 2008 further delayed its application.

No other country has had to bargain so long before being granted entry.

Moscow cleared its last hurdle for WTO accession when it finally clinched in November a deal with last hold-out Georgia, which was able to veto any accession bid by virtue of its membership to the trade body.

In all, Russia sealed 30 bilateral agreements on market access for services and 57 on access for goods in order to secure the green light from other WTO states.

For the overall package, Moscow agreed to cut its tariff ceiling from the 2011 average of 10 percent for all products to 7.8 percent.

The average tariff ceiling for agricultural products is cut to 10.8 percent from 13.2 percent currently, with manufactured goods at 7.3 percent, down from 9.5 percent.

Russia also agreed to limit farm subsidies to USD 9 billion (6.9 billion euros) in 2012 and to gradually reduce them to USD 4.4 billion by 2018.