West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin this week helped mark Russia's acceptance to the World Trade Organisation during a visit to Bryansk. The MP welcomed the news during a four day visit to Russia to meet with national and local government officials as well as a tour of food production facilities in Bryansk. Harriett commented: "The trip has been enormously useful in building trade links, particularly with the fast-growing agricultural sector, and it was very timely with the WTO announcement. "Bryansk is a very ambitious region and it offers a wide range of opportunities for both Worcestershire and UK entrepreneurs. "Much of the land is now being bought up by giant agri-business and they are hoping to compete on the global stage. "However, trading relationships are based on sharing expertise and I hope that we are able to build bridges to share our genetics knowledge and open the door for our agricultural and horticultural colleges to work with their colleges." Harriett was joined on the trip by fellow MP Neil Parish who is a former farmer, and former MEP with responsibility for agricultural policy and currently a member of the DEFRA select committee The Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens, NFU vice president Adam Quinney and cattle expert Dan Morris also joined the trip hosted by Bryansk Governor Nikolai Denin. Harriett led the trip following a successful trade fair which she hosted in Worcestershire and as part of her duties as vice chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Russia. Harriett added: "We were also able to discuss the current ban on the import of meat products and livestock from the UK and I hope that we will make some headway on that issue soon. "The vast majority of UK farmers have perfectly healthy stocks and I was pleased that our Chief Veterinary Officer was able to join the trip to meet his counterparts in the Russian Government to make this case. "It is estimated that lifting the export ban could be worth £120 million to the UK economy so we need to do all we can to fix this block."