Kazakhstan WTO Accession in Bali Ministerial

Kazakhstan could be invited to become the WTO’s 160th member in time for the organisation’s ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia this December, officials involved in the negotiations said last week. The Central Asian country has been working to join the Geneva-based trade organisation since 1996.

In order for Astana to be formally welcomed into the global trade body by December, the Working Party (WP) tasked with the talks would need to accelerate its work so as to conclude the negotiations by July, according to WP chair Vesa Himanen of Finland.

In an effort to resolve some of these outstanding issues, plurilateral meetings were also held last week to address differences relating to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures - which involve food safety and plant and animal health- and agriculture. Another area of concern is trade-related investment measures (TRIMS), in particular regarding the length of the transition period that Astana would be granted for eliminating all measures that are inconsistent with the WTO’s TRIMS Agreement.

Any accession to the WTO hinges on a unanimous agreement among all current members, which reached 159 in number after Tajikistan joined earlier this month. Once members sign off on Astana’s accession terms, the country will still need to ratify the accession package domestically and then undergo a 30-day waiting period before its membership becomes final.

Russia likely to make tariff adjustments, officials say

One dimension of the trade negotiations that has complicated matters is Kazakhstan’s customs union with neighbours Russia and Belarus - an initiative launched in early 2010 that was intended as the first step toward a broader economic alliance of former Soviet states, fashioned similarly to the EU.

Before Russia formally joined the WTO last August, the three countries had considered seeking membership as a group. However, due to the lack of any precedent for a customs union bid to the WTO, as well as any framework for such proceedings, that method of accession was ultimately abandoned some months later. Russia is now the only one of the three customs union members to be part of the WTO.

Earlier this month, Andrey Slepnev - who serves as the trade minister for the Eurasian Economic Commission, the custom union’s governing body - told Bloomberg that Russia will cut some import tariffs to somewhat approximate those that its partner Kazakhstan is likely to accept in its accession protocol.