On the 9th meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of Belarus to the WTO

14-09-2017

On September 13, 2017 the 9th official meeting of Working Party on Belarus’ accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the second in 2017, was held in Geneva.

The Belarusian delegation headed by the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Yeudachenka included representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Forestry, the State Committee of Standardization, the State Customs Committee, the National Center of Intellectual Property, the Permanent Mission of Belarus in Geneva.

Andrei Yeudachenka informed the WTO Members on the economic situation in Belarus, on the improvement of national legislation with a view to bringing it in line with WTO rules, on the development of integration processes within the EAEU and on the completion of bilateral negotiations on market access with the Republic of Korea, Japan and Ecuador.

Representatives of the EU, USA, Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Turkey, Japan, the Republic of Korea, El Salvador, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and others countries in their statements supported the steps taken by the Government of Belarus to accede to the WTO and called for the earliest completion of the negotiation process.

In the course of the meeting, which took place in a constructive manner, a substantive discussion took place on the first draft of the Report of the Working Party on the following issues: the economic policy of Belarus, the regulation of exports and imports of goods, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, trade aspects of intellectual property rights, trade in services and a number of others. The Belarusian delegation provided detailed answers to the questions from the WTO Member States, which will form the basis for the second version of the draft Working Party Report. A preliminary agreement was reached to hold the next 10th official meeting of the Working Party in the first quarter of 2018.

On September 12, 2017 the special meeting on state support for agriculture in Belarus was held, it was the first after a twelve-year break (the previous meeting was held in 2005). During the event, the Belarusian delegation informed about the country’s agricultural policy, presented an updated package of documents on state support for the agro-industrial complex, and also answered to the questions from WTO Members.

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