EU to take preferences off Kazakhstan exporters in 2014

The European Union will take most of the preferences off Kazakhstan exporters starting from 2014, Tengrinews.kz reports. "Duties on all Kazakhstan-made goods will be introduced at the territory of the EU starting from January 1, 2014. Being an export-oriented company with major volumes of export to the EU, we are seriously concerned about this problem,” Director of Sales and Marketing Department of KazPhosphate Kseniya Semenikhina said during the 8th meeting of the Exporters Council. She said that this was related to the fact that, according to the World Bank, Kazakhstan had achieved the average level of profits per capita and was taken off the list of countries that had preferences together with Russia and several Latin American countries. “That means that the duties will be introduced in different sizes, from 5.5 percent and higher,” the representative of KazPhosphate said. “We are treated this way because we are among countries with certain GDP per capita. It does not apply to China, but we here must have allegedly gotten very rich and, as I've have already said today, are having problems because of this,” first Vice-Minister of Industry and New Technologies Albert Rau said. Kazakhstan exporters are recommended to negotiate directly with their consumers in the EU, involving Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies. “It is possible to submit an application to Brussels asking for a temporary suspension of the duties via a consumer in the EU, if there is no such production at the territory of the EU,” Semenikhina said. By Renat Tashkinbayev