Taking the next step for Moscow's entry into the World Trade Organization after 13 years of trying, Russia and the United States signed a long-awaited bilateral deal last month in, of all places, Vietnam's capital of Hanoi. For the high-tech community, the deal means a freer flow of goods and services between the United States and Russia and the rest of the WTO's 149 member nations.

Thorny issues remain, especially in protecting intellectual property. As in China, creators of IP need protection to ensure that they are compensated fairly. Still, for the most part, the deal is considered good for the high-tech industry.

The newly formed Coalition for U.S.-Russia Trade, a fast-growing grouping of trade associations and companies that strongly support Russia's entry into the WTO, commended both the U.S. and Russian governments for reaching an agreement in principle on Russia's commitments for WTO accession.

Information Technology Industry Council president and CEO Rhett Dawson called Russia "an important market for the U.S. IT sector, and completion of the bilateral represents an important step in further integrating Russia into . . . rules-based global trading."

Russia has averaged nearly 7 percent growth over the past seven years, and per capita income has risen sharply. More and more U.S. businesses are noticing Russia's dynamism and reorienting their global business strategies accordingly.

The U.S.-Russia Business Council, a trade association representing some 300 U.S. and Russian corporations, serves as the secretariat for the Coalition for U.S.-Russia Trade.

The coalition will be the driving force for the business community's efforts to educate members of Congress and their staffs on the thriving bilateral U.S.-Russia economic relationship and the opportunities for U.S. business opened up by Russia's entry into the WTO. It will discuss the benefits to U.S. companies, farmers and workers, and the level playing field on which they will engage foreign competitors.

At an appropriate time, the coalition will urge Congress to provide permanent normal trade relations--or PNTR, as it's called--to Russia. And there is the rub.

What's the appropriate time?

After the Democrats' midterm-election victory, observers are predicting Congress will be swept by another wave of anti-Russian sentiment.

Thirty-two years after it was inserted into the 1974 Trade Act, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment still effectively denies unconditional normal trade relations to Russia because of that nation's nonmarket economies and restricted emigration policies.

So now that a Republican president has signed the bilateral trade agreement leading to full WTO membership for Russia, will a Democratic Congress put on its "gut-reaction" brakes and further delay admission of Russia into the club of "civilized economies"?

Was the president saying "let bygones be bygones" when he signed the deal with Vladimir Putin in the capital of the latest WTO member, Vietnam?

"Not enough people are aware of all the positives in the U.S.-Russia commercial relationship, and of the potential damage to U.S. interests if the U.S. Congress does not extend PNTR to Russia," said Brian Cox, executive vice president of the U.S.-Russia Business Council.

"Congress does not have a vote on Russia's WTO accession," he said. "However, if it does not grant PNTR for Russia, U.S. business and agriculture will not be able to take advantage of any of the concessions that we have just finished negotiating under the bilateral agreement. We will be working hard in the coming months to ensure that U.S. firms realize the benefits of the accession terms and do not cede market share to competitors when Russia's WTO accession occurs."

For the sake of growing economies everywhere, we concur with such sentiments. We can only hope that recent unpleasant events implicating President Putin's Kremlin in KGB-style machinations won't further derail U.S.-Russia relations.