ID :
375476
Tue, 07/28/2015 - 12:08
Auther :

Kazakhstan’s accession to WTO to positively impact Eurasian Economic Union - Foreign Affairs Minister

GENEVA, July 27. /TASS/. Kazakhstan’s accession to the World Trade Organization /WTO/ will positively impact cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union /EAEU/, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov told TASS on Monday. "We assume Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO will bring in a new character to our integrative work within the Eurasian Economic Union," the Minister said. "Russia is already a member-state of the WTO, the Kyrgyz Republic and Armenia are also the WTO member-states. Now Kazakhstan - the second-biggest post-Soviet economy - becomes the WTO member-state. This means the globally agreed trade rules will be widely used as a background for our work within the EAEU," the Minister said. He also said Kazakhstan will be waiting forward to "Belarus’ accession to the WTO", which will "add opportunities for wider cooperation in Eurasia." President Nazarbayev "stressed Russia’s big role and contribution to the process of Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO," Idrissov said. "We’re grateful to our Russian partners. But this is not the end but the beginning of a new stage of a very big responsible work," he said, adding that the World Trade Organization is likely to bring much "dividends both to Russia and Kazakhstan as members of the EAEU." President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and Director-General of the World Trade Organization Roberto Azevedo signed a protocol on the country’s accession to the organization at a session of the WTO’s General Council, the organization’s highest-level decision-making body in Geneva on Monday. Nazarbayev said the Kazakh economy has seen major structural changes since talks on its accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) began almost 20 years ago. Roberto Azevedo expressed hope that Kazakhstan will take part in the 10th Ministerial Conference, which will be held by the trade body in Nairobi /Kenya/ from 15 to 18 December 2015, as its member-state. "Hopefully we will be able to confirm Kazakhstan’s membership at the conference in Nairobi as it will become the 162nd member of the organization. Unless it happens earlier," he said. Minister of Economic Integration Zhanar Aitzhanova said this timeframe is "realistic" as "there are 2 months left for ratification within the country" after the protocol of Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO is signed. "We’ve already done big job with both houses of our parliament and we’re to finish the ratification process by October 31," she told TASS. After that the document signed by the head of the state will be submitted to the WTO Secretariat. The decision on Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO will come into force automatically after 30 days pass from the moment when the trade organization receives ratification confirmation. "Conference in Nairobi is our goal. We should do everything by the forum. We’ve got a time schedule, which starts from the Nairobi conference," Aitzhanova said. Read more

X