Kazakhstan's accession to WTO may hamper development of EEU: Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei

This year in June, after 19 years of negotiations Kazakhstan and World Trade Organization (WTO) members finally agreed on the terms of Kazakhstan's accession to the organization. According to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Vladimir Makei, Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO may hamper the development of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Tengrinews reports citing Russian Kommersant newspaper.

“We have preserved a large number of exceptions and limitations that are not conducive to the early establishment of the single economic space, which is the main goal we have sought to achieve. Moreover, its creation was postponed until 2025 and actions of some partners may delay this deadline even further. I particularly mean Kazakhstan’s accession to the World Trade Organization and its commitments (within the WTO) that reduce the level of customs security within the EEU,” Vladimir Makei asserted.

According to him, in accordance with the commitments that Kazakhstan undertook, the level of customs security on 3,000 products is much lower than what countries agreed upon within the Eurasian Economic Union. For instance, a technology that was at some point been imported into one of the EEU member states from Belarus, can now be imported to Kazakhstan and consequently to Russia, where it can substitute the equipment that used to be exported (from Russia) to Belarus. “Of course, we understand these risks and we will take adequate response measures, building appropriate levels of tariff protection on our part for those goods that can enter the EEU market through Kazakhstan. By the way, in this area we are working together with our partners from Russia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan,” he added.

Belarus Foreign Minister also believes that it is too early to talk about common currency within the EEU. “Back in the day when the European Union was formed, it did not come up with creation of a common currency immediately. And we should better learn from the lessons of the European Union and the Soviet Union. At this stage, there is no point in talking about common currency. We first need to achieve success in creation of a single economic space," Makei said.

By Assel Satubaldina