Business news

Belarus’ accession to the WTO was one of the topics discussed by the Belarusian government delegation with representatives of the Government of Italy. "It is planned that on 11 September Minsk will host the Director of Accessions Division, the WTO Secretariat. We will discuss the step-by-step plan of our actions. Our partners in the Eurasian Economic Union are already in the WTO. So they are urging us not to delay the negotiations," said Alexander Guryanov

According to him, a certain block of issues on Belarus’ accession to the WTO has been cleared. "With regard to the Eurasian Economic Union legal framework, it is accepted by the WTO members. But we have yet to complete the negotiations on those commitments which constitute national competence," he explained.

"We can conclude the technical part fairly quickly, but everything depends on the procedural decisions of the WTO itself. The working group on Belarus consists of 40 countries. With half of them we are yet to complete the negotiations on access to the Belarusian market, meeting their expectations in terms of the Belarusian legislation which governs the foreign economic activities," said Alexander Guryanov.

The Belarusian government delegation is in Italy on a visit on 9-10 September. Today the delegation is set to visit the region of Piedmont. According to Alexander Guryanov, the Belarusian delegation will have a series of meetings here and visit machine-building enterprises to discuss the possibilities of joint car assembly and joint promotion of equipment, the expansion of trade and investment cooperation with Piedmont.

According to Alexander Guryanov, 2014 was a record year for Belarus and Italy in terms of bilateral trade which exceeded $2 billion. “This amount can be increased at least twice,” Alexander Guryanov believes.