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Belarus eager to finish WTO entry talks within one year
MINSK, 5 March (BelTA) – Belarus intends to finish negotiations with WTO member states on the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization within one year, BelTA learned from Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei after a government conference hosted by the head of state on 5 March.
Vladimir Makei said: “We virtually didn’t work in this area in the previous ten years but in the last two years we signed ten protocols with various countries. These protocols allow us to continue work on joining the WTO. We have yet to sign protocols with six other countries. I think this work will be finished within one year.”
The official noted that as Belarus takes steps to join the WTO, it is important to clearly understand what benefits and losses the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization may entail. “We have to clearly understand that our benefits, dividends should outweigh [our losses]. This is why the government is going to discuss our accession to the WTO soon. Then our stance will be presented to the head of state,” Vladimir Makei added.
“We are not going to rush things, but we understand that the World Trade Organization is far from collapse as some parties try to make things look like. Contrariwise, the actions the USA and some other countries are taking to toughen WTO rules indicate that the organization will have more hard-edged influence on international trade in the future,” Vladimir Makei noted.
“But let me repeat it once again: we are going to carefully weigh all the pros and cons. The head of state will make decisions after he hears an objective presentation of specific advantages our joining the World Trade Organization gives,” Vladimir Makei pointed out.
The official went on saying that the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue working on diversifying foreign economic activities. “The head of state has clearly said that our relations with the East, the West, the North, and the South must be absolutely balanced. Only then will our small country be able to survive periods of some possible financial and economic troubles,” the minister of foreign affairs concluded.
Sessions of the WTO working party on Belarus’ accession to the organization were resumed in Geneva in 2017. The experts have already moved from a summary report to the working party’s draft report, which is supposed to stipulate Belarus’ commitments. In other words, the negotiations are in the final stage. Two more sessions of the working party will take place in the WTO HQ by the end of the year.
Belarus has completed bilateral negotiations on access to markets with 20 WTO member states. Negotiations are still in progress with six other WTO member states: the USA, the European Union, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Ukraine.
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