Belarus counts on the EEU support in accession to the WTO

Almaty. April 14. Silkroadnews – Belarus counts on the support of partners in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in the process of accession to the WTO, BelTA reports.

“President of Belarus made a principal decision to energize the process of negotiations on country’s accession to the WTO. Within the nearest time the government will hold a number of meetings and prepare the negotiation proposals. Now we will need an assistance and we count on the support by our EEU-partners that are the WTO member-states,” said prime minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov at the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Moscow yesterday.

In its turn, as he said, the side is open and ready to discuss the accession issues “down to the most specific nuances”.

The prime minister also added, Belarus expects serious progress in the elimination of exemptions and restrictions within the EEU mutual trade order.

“Belarus holds by the opinion that the primary objective is to eliminate the exceptions and limitations in the mutual trade. In this regard, I suggest to go back to our idea to collect the parties’ proposals on the priority list of 10-20 exceptions and take measures for their prompt elimination. The Belarusian side expects serious progress in this work due to structural changes in the Commission – appointment of a member of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) board on the internal market functioning and the relevant department establishment,” Andrei Kobyakov said.

He also noted that the Belarusian side expects to strengthen the EEC coordinating role in the resolution of internal conflicts between the EEU member-states. This includes the issues of free trade and access to the public procurement, tariff and non-tariff protection of the EEU domestic market, especially under conditions of new states’ accession to the Union and Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO.