Belarus may complete the process of joining the World Trade Organization by 2020.
Such statement was made by Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhei Rumas at the Kastryčnicki Economic Forum, Maika Oshikawa, Director at WTO Accessions Division, said.
“For the first time, we seem to have heard a specific date from the government of Belarus. This is a fairly clear message to members of the World Trade Organization that Belarus takes it seriously. I think that this is an ambitious but realistic goal,” she stressed.
The information was confirmed by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Yeudachenka:
“I do not know whether we will save the World Trade Organization by our accession, but we are definitely on the way to it. Over the past two years, we have been made much more headway than within the previous 23 years. We will have to negotiate with seven toughest countries. We hope that by Q1 2019 we will have ended negotiations with all of them except for the United States,” the diplomat said.
“Belarus has been in the process of accession to the World Trade Organization for 25 years. As a rule, it takes a little more than 10 years [to join the WTO]. That is, it took Belarus a little more time that one expected. I believe it is high time to complete this process,” Ms Oshikawa said.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
Belarus’ Working Party on the accession to WTO was established on 27 October 1993. Belarus is the only European country that is not a member of it. However, in 2016, Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka questioned the advantages of Belarus’ entering the World Trade Organisation. According to him, the WTO actually ‘exhausted itself’.
ІІ, belsat.eu
