Kazakhstan to clear WTO accession procedures by December

Kazakhstan will have cleared all the procedures to access the WTO by December 2014, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports, citing Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Vice PM, as saying at the Almaty Invest forum.

According to the official, “there is light at the end of the tunnel (…) October 9 in Brussels Kazakhstan and the EU signed a document to mark completion of the bilateral talks on Kazakhstan’s accession into the WTO. There are some issues pending with the USA. A Kazakhstan’s delegation in leaving for Washington next week. I hope all the procedures will have been completed by December (…) We hope Kazakhstan is ready to enter the Organization”, he said.

September 23, following the talks with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov, US Secretary of State John Kerry stated the USA supported Kazakhstan’s accession. He expressed hope Kazakhstan will complete all the procedures shortly.