Kazakhstan Approved, Liberia Moves Towards WTO Membership

WTO members formally signed off on Kazakhstan’s accession on Monday, bringing the Central Asian country into the final stage of becoming the global trade body’s 162nd member.

The approval of Kazakhstan’s accession package came during the 27-28 July meeting of the WTO’s General Council, which is the global trade body’s highest decision-making body outside of the ministerial conference. The Working Party tasked with the accession talks had already approved these terms in principle in June.

Astana’s negotiations for joining the WTO kicked off in 1996. The accession package must now be ratified by its parliament by 31 October of this year, with its membership taking effect 30 days after Kazakhstan notifies the WTO of ratification.

Currently, the bulk of Kazahstan’s foreign trade turnover – over 90 percent – involves current WTO members, he noted, a significant shift from the mid-1990s, when the Central Asian economy mainly had ties with post-Soviet nations. Over forty percent of Kazakh trade involves the EU, with other main partners including Russia, China, the US, and Canada.

Among the various commitments that Astana has pledged to take on include binding tariff rates for all products on an average at 6.1 percent. Within the area of agricultural products, this average ceiling is set at 7.6 percent, while non-agricultural goods will be bound at a 5.9 percent average tariffs.

Notably, Kazakhstan has also made commitments in 10 services sectors, including telecommunications, insurance, banking, tourism, and distribution, among others. Nazarbayev noted on Monday that developing the services sector is a priority for Kazakhstan, given that this currently accounts for approximately 54 percent of domestic GDP.

Astana will also be joining the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), a plurilateral tariff-cutting deal that already has 81 participating countries. The Central Asian economy has also committed to beginning talks to join the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), another plurilateral WTO pact that deals with public contracts.

Liberia to join by ministerial?

Another accession bid that is reportedly approaching the finish line is that of Liberia, a least developed country (LDC) situated in West Africa that has been in talks to join the WTO since 2007.

Notably, Liberia has reached a series of bilateral agreements with interested WTO members – such as Canada, Chinese Taipei, the EU, the US, and Japan – over the past few months, which is a key component of accession negotiations.

Liberia’s membership bid can be approved in a final meeting of the Working Party to adopt ad referendum the draft accession terms would be held in the first half of October, if all proceeds on schedule.

Should Liberia’s accession negotiations be successful, it would mark the 35th LDC to join the WTO, as well as the 163rd member.