Foreign Ministry: Negotiations on WTO Entry Continue

Belarus continues membership negotiations with the World Trade Organization, said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Guryanov on May 27th to journalists, as is reported by Belta.

Belarus continues membership negotiations with the World Trade Organization, said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Guryanov on May 27^th to journalists, as is reported by Belta.

“The dialogue is in process, we are preparing a series of new documents which were requested by the secretariat of the WTO,” he added, stressing that “Belarus hasn’t fallen behind the schedule in this process”.

Commenting upon Belarus’ relatively delayed entry into the WTO as compared with Russia, Alexander Guryanov noted that Russia’s membership in this organization is, on the whole, important both for the Customs Union and for the partners of this integration entity.

“Everybody understands that the interests of the Customs Union are also of considerable importance. It would be unwise to let one member of the Customs Union join the WTO and refuse others,” said the deputy minister.

“When we formed the Customs Union, we took into account this possibility, the norms and rules of the WTO,” he stated. So far, 79 agreements have been signed within the framework of the Customs Union. Besides that, the governments of the countries have taken a decision to codify the legislation of the Customs Union so that the differences that remain would be taken into account.

Moreover, the Customs Union has assumed the obligations with respect to tariffs which were taken on by Russia during the negotiations with the WTO. These obligations are taken as a basis in Belarus and Kazakhstan. Alexander Guryanov noted that during the negotiations with the WTO Russia got across the conditions concerning preservation of tariff shelter for both its own market and the market of the Customs Union as a whole. As regards other obligations to the WTO, Belarus and Kazakhstan follow the approaches that have been developed by Russia.

“Therefore, we are aware of all the results of Russia’s negotiations with the WTO, and we consider them as a basis for our future work with this international organization,” said Alexander Guryanov.