Business news

MINSK, 2 November (BelTA) – WTO membership will help Belarus get involved in discussing new rules for small and medium private companies in view of economy digitization, BelTA learned from Olga Kazakevich, Head of the WTO and Trade Regimes Unification Department of the Foreign Trade Policy Office of the Foreign Economic Activities Department of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 2 November.

According to the source, the World Trade Organization is now discussing how the private sector should operate due to the introduction of new technologies and economy digitization. “New technologies open up new opportunities for small and medium private companies. It is a topical matter for Belarus. It is being discussed at the WTO platform today. New rules are likely to be worked out. Certainly, Belarus should become a WTO member as soon as possible in order to get involved in the process and contribute to it so that our interests would be taken into account,” said Olga Kazakevich.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative underlined that Belarus will do everything to become a WTO member by the end of 2020. “We have yet to conclude negotiations with key WTO members – the European Union and the USA,” she noted. Apart from that, Belarus has yet to finish negotiations with Canada, Brazil, Australia, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

“WTO accession cannot be fast because legislation has to be amended. Belarus is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. We already follow the main WTO rules but we don’t have some of the advantages yet,” said the official. Olga Kazakevich noted that the legislation amendments have to pass through the parliament, which needs time, too.

Olga Kazakevich made a statement in response to rumors about the WTO’s demise. She compared WTO rules to traffic rules. “They are not perfect. They sometimes change. They are sometimes broken. But if these rules are scrapped, chaos will begin. As long as countries trade with each other, they need rules. The World Trade Organization is the only platform in this regard,” she stressed.