Russia wants to increase farm subsidies to $9 billion in 2012 from $4.6 billion now in order to sustain growth in the sector, and phase them back down to the current level by 2017.
"We won everything that we wanted to squeeze out," Putin told workers at a farm in Rostov-on-Don region. "Our negotiators are very experienced, they are gaining good terms on the whole and on subsidies in particular."
Russia aims to become a member of the global trade watchdog in December. The outstanding issues include agriculture subsidies and meat quotas, a car assembly regime as well as food, plant and animal import safety rules.
A source familiar with the negotiations said the deal on subsidies would not be officially announced until there was an agreement on meat quotas since the two issues were linked.
Russia applied to join the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), in June 1993 and its $1.5 trillion economy is by far the largest economy outside the 153-member WTO.
Rubbing Hands
The sentiment towards WTO membership among Russian farmers and industrialists is generally negative with negotiators seen to be making too many concessions. Putin often plays up to this sentiment using anti-WTO rhetoric.
"Wherever we see that some proposals can be damaging for our agriculture, we will not accept them," Putin said. "We will approach it very carefully and will not accept conditions which put our producers into an unfavourable environment."
Putin sees agriculture as a priority sector which can help Russia's economic growth while farmers are the core constituency for his United Russia party which will seek to maintain its majority in parliament during the election in December.
Russia has spent $25 billion in the past five years to support growth in the agriculture sector and rose to rank as the world's third largest grain exporter in 2009. The country also wants to achieve self-sufficiency in poultry and meat.
Putin said Russia was ready to introduce more import bans similar to the one still in force for fresh vegetables from the European Union following a deadly E.coli outbreak, despite an EU warning that such blanket moves contradicted the WTO rules.
"We just need an excuse. If there is an excuse, (head of of state consumer protection agency Gennady) Onishchenko is already rubbing his hands, waiting for orders," Putin said after farmers asked him to ban imports of dairy substitutes.
Putin said he wanted to change the attitude of Western food exporters who view the Russian market as their "turf where they can do whatever they want".
Speaking to French investors in Paris on Tuesday, Putin said
Russia would stick to its policy of luring major global auto makers into the country through import duty breaks on parts to be assembled at plants in Russia, despite EU objections.
"The only ones we could not agree with (on the car assembly rules) were the bureaucrats from the EU. But life goes on, contracts are being signed, work is being done," Putin said. (Reuters)
