The Russian Federation Ministry of Economic Development and the Russian Federation Ministry of Industry and Energy decided to put off signing contracts on assembling Chinese cars in Russia until September 15, 2007.

The two ministries are reluctant to sign the agreements before mid-September since the assembling scheme proposed by these agreements allows for a duty-free import of car parts, which is actually against the WTO regulations.

According to Kommersant newspaper, this uncertainty questions the future of four projects currently considered by the Ministry of Economic Development: the prospective construction of Great Wall (a Chinese concern) car factory in Tatarstan, assembling of Geelys and ZhongXings and Lifan cars at a Sverdlovsk Region-based plant and at Cherkessk-based Derways, respectively, and production of BAIC utility trucks in Ulyanovsk Region. These four projects are expected to result in 230,000 cars a year altogether and require $385 million worth of investments.