On the 11th Working Party on Belarus’ accession to the World Trade Organization

15-02-2019

On 15 February 2019, the 11th official meeting of the Working Party on Belarus’ accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) took place in Geneva. The delegation of Belarus, which included representatives and experts from a number of state institutions, was headed by the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs  Andrei Yeudachenka.

The head of the delegation briefed the participants of the meeting on the development of the Belarusian economy, progress towards joining the WTO, results that were achieved from the date of the previous meeting of the Working Party in May 2018, as well as on the completion of bilateral negotiations on market access with 4 WTO Members. A.Yeudachenka urged the WTO Members to support the efforts of Belarus in becoming WTO Member, which could be announced during the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in June 2020.

The meeting was attended by representatives of about 70 WTO Member states. Representatives of Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey , Ukraine, Vietnam  and a number of other countries supported steps undertaken by the Government of Belarus to join the WTO and expressed their willingness to actively work together with Belarus in 2019 with a view to the early completion of the negotiation process.

During the meeting participants performed substantive discussions on the current version of the draft Report of the Working Party on a number of sections. The Belarusian delegation provided detailed answers to all the questions received from the WTO Members. The next WP official meeting is scheduled to take place before the end of the summer 2019.

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