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RSPP President Alexander Shokhin welcomed U. S. Under Secretary for Trade Francisco Sanchez to RSPP headquarter at 17 Kotelnicheskaya nab. Monday.
On April 23 RSPP hosted a similar meeting with Deputy Under Secretary Michelle O’Neill who serves also as Coordinator for the Business Development and Economic Relations working group of the U.S. – Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission.
The meeting represented all the business associations, comprising the Russian side of the Russia – U. S. Business Dialogue: RSPP, the Russian Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the business associations ‘Delovaya Rossiya’ and ‘OPORA Russia’.
Mr. Shokhin began by reminding those present how it all started, a year before the ‘reset button’ was pushed. Back in 2008, RSPP, not satisfied with the then state of Russia – U. S. Relations took some decisive steps to encourage business contacts between the two nations by dint of signing an agreement between RSPP and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce during the 2008 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. That inaugurated an unbroken chain of roundtables. During this year’s St. Petersburg Economic Forum RSPP will be hosting a 5th Russia – U. S. roundtable featuring CEOs of Russian and American national champions. In addition, the Business Dialogue’s close partnership with the Development & Economic Relations Working Group has yielded some positive results, ‘and the best is yet to come with Russia’s accession to the WTO’, said Mr. Shokhin. One of the remaining obstacles for U. S. companies to successfully enter the Russian markets, Mr. Shokhin believes, is the Jackson-Vanick amendment which has to be abolished at last.
Mr. Sanchez emphasized that U. S. Department for Trade has singled out Russia as one of the key economic and investment partners. He believes that it is economic issues that must drive the ‘reset’ process.
