KIEV, March 26 – Newly appointed Economy Minister Petro Poroshenko on Monday sought to ease trade tensions with Moscow, and said that Ukraine may benefit from Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization later this year.

Poroshenko, on his first business day after his appointment to the post, met Viktor Khristenko, a Russian official and the head of the Eurasian economic commission, in Kiev to discuss the trade issues.

“I hope we can create a way that would allow effectively removing trade misunderstandings and disputes,” Poroshenko said after the meeting. “The main anti-crisis measure, I believe, would be opening up our markets.”

The meeting comes a week after President Viktor Yanukovych traveled to Moscow for a summit of regional leaders as Russia seeks to expand its trade bloc.

Ukraine has so far refused to join the bloc, known as the Customs Union, amid hopes of developing greater cooperation and integration with the European Union.

But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Yanukovych that such position may lead to Ukraine being punished by trade restrictions

“That’s life,” Medvedev told Yanukovych and other leaders. “If you don’t join this international entity, you will have difficulties.”

The developments come almost a month after Moscow has banned imports of a number of Ukrainian cheese products, forcing Ukrainian companies to scale back production and lay off personnel to prevent losses.

Meanwhile, Poroshenko suggested that Ukraine may actually benefit from Russian joining the WTO later this year, providing a clear way for resolving trade disputes.

Russia, the world’s only major market that is still not a member of the trade body, is due to accede to the WTO later this year, after finally winning admission in December 2011 after 18 years of negotiations.

Moscow has estimated that Russian membership of the global trade club could benefit its industries by some $2 billion a year, and said the terms of its accession would be highly favorable for Russian farmers.

Poroshenko said the accession to the WTO will improve its cooperation with Ukraine in a number of sectors.

“We are seriously counting on the fact that after the official accession we will have pretty serious opportunities for strategic partnership in key industries, such as the energy sector, machine building, agriculture and high tech,” Poroshenko said.

Ukraine’s trade with Russia reached $50 billion in 2011, up from about $40 billion in 2008, suggesting that the trade had improved to levels exceeding those before the financial crisis.

Ukraine signed a free trade agreement with Russia and other former Soviet Union countries in October 2011, but problems now have emerged, delaying its ratification in Parliament.

Oleksandr Yefremov, the leader of the governing Regions Party group in Parliament, said last week that Ukrainian legislators are not yet ready to ratify the agreement.

Ukraine is mostly concerned with the fact that members of the Customs Union, such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, are allowed to respond with steeper trade restrictions against other countries that are non-members, putting such countries as Ukraine at a disadvantage. (nr/ez)