Premier Miller raises issue of trade with Russian PM while on official visit

Five months have passed since the visit of Russian president Vladimir Putin to Poland, but the promised breakthrough in trade relations between Poland a nd Russia failed to materialize. Most Polish companies when asked about doin g business in Russia say that no radical change took place. Furniture produc ers were counting on significant lowering of very high Russian import duties , but this has not materialized, and they blame the Polish Economy Ministry for not being determined enough in this area. Jerzy Pilarczyk, secretary of state at the Agriculture Ministry and head of the Polish Russian Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that the main obstacles inhibiting trade between the two countries have not been removed. These include: high a nd complex customs barriers, extra barriers on Polish goods and lack of an a greement on mutual approval of quality certificates. Trade barriers were amo ng the issues raised by Prime Minister Leszek Miller during his meeting yest erday with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Kassianov. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B 1) T.J.