BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/06/2009

Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan inform WTO about talks suspension

MOSCOW, Jun 18 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have verbally informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) about the suspension of their individual accession talks, Maxim Medvedkov, head of the Russian Economic Development Ministry's trade negotiations department, told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.

Representatives of the three nations met in Geneva with representatives of WTO member countries on Wednesday to inform them about their new plans, Medvedkov said. An official notification of the countries' decision to suspend individual talks on WTO accession will be made later, he added.

The three countries are halting talks on their individual accession to the WTO because they plan to join the organization as a single customs union. The customs union is scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2010.

Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan may hold new consultations with WTO member nations before the end of August, Medvedkov said.

Russia has suggested that Belarus and Kazakhstan use Russian standards in the upcoming WTO talks, Medvedkov said, adding that this would make negotiations easier because Russia had already completed 95% of its individual accession talks, while Kazakhstan had finished 70% of individual negotiations and Belarus had completed less than 50%.

Source:

http://www.prime-tass.com/news/show.asp?topicid=50&id=459135

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