WTO Approves Kazakhstan’s Membership

After almost 20 years of negotiations, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Council has approved Kazakhstan’s entry into the WTO.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo and Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the accession agreement at WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 27. The agreement has to be ratified by the Kazakh parliament by October 31, after which Kazakhstan will formally become the 162nd WTO member.

Kazakhstan began WTO accession negotiations back in 1996, but a lot of time and effort had to be put into liberalizing Kazakhstan’s trade policies and aligning its WTO commitments with the commitments related to its Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) membership.

Prepared by: Masa Lopicic

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Source: The Astana Times, WTO