For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 22, 2001

Joint Statement by President Bush and Russian President Putin on Bilateral Trade and Investment Relations

In keeping with the spirit of our Ljubljana discussions, we welcome the initiative of the American and Russian business communities to provide new impetus to our bilateral trade and investment relations through the creation of the "Russian American Business Dialogue."

We expect the Dialogue to perform three key functions: expand contact between our two business communities; identify areas where laws, regulations and practices impede trade and investment; and provide a forum where business interests could be raised with our respective governments. We seek to promote economic reform, a transparent and predictable investment climate and rule of law, and to work towards the Russian Federation's early accession to the WTO.

The Dialogue will be open to interested American and Russian companies and business associations. We hope thereby to encourage participation by large, medium, and especially small enterprises from a broad cross-section of industry sectors, including, in particular, technology businesses. We welcome the offer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, the U.S.-Russia Business Council, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and the Russian-American Business Council to steer this effort.

We embrace the offer of the Dialogue organizers to prepare formal reports of the Dialogue for use by the governments of the Russian Federation and the United States. We affirm our commitment to send cabinet level representatives to receive the first formal report of the Dialogue at a meeting of the Dialogue early next year.

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