Let’s join WTO as one kolkhoz

The Belarusian regime has decided to enter the World Trade Organisation together with Russia and Kazakhstan. Despite of all the talks about “a balanced foreign policy”, Lukashenka’s Belarus intends to stay in the sphere of influence of Russia.

Today a joint negotiation group of the Customs union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia’s joining the WTO has been formed in Moscow. It is headed by the director of the trade negotiations department of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Russia Maxim Medvedkov. Such a decision was adopted on August 12 in Moscow summing up the results of the 7th session of the customs union commission.

“We have formed a negotiations group, which consists of representatives of all the three states. They are experienced negotiators,” RIA Novosti quote the first vice prime minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov. “We are proceeding from the fact that this group would carry out talks on joining the WTO by the Customs Union, and about joining of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to the WTO at reasonable terms which are to be coordinated”.

Shuvalov underlined that the priority is “joining by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan simultaneously and on the same terms”. At the same time, he noted: “If the sides would have to adopt any other decisions, we would be ready for them, on the basis that such decisions should be approved by leaders of the states, and we are keeping in mind that the strategic aim for all the three states is participation in the WTO, in full format, as full members”.

As said by the first vice prime minister of Russia, the group is to have all the powers in order to hold negotiations both on behalf of the Customs Union, and on behalf of national governments. “We can join the WTO separately legally, each of the states. We can join as the Customs Union on some issues, it’s a matter of technical details… the most important thing is, to fulfil the decisions we reached in June this year, that we do not carry out negotiations on the WT separately,” Shuvalov said.

As said by him, the group is to be formed finally by August 24 and is “to start the talks with the WTO secretariat immediately”.

The application for joining the WTO as a single customs territory was signed by prime ministers of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia on June 9 in Moscow. Heads of governments stated that they refuse to hold national talks with the WTO, and a single group of experts of the three countries is to hold talks on entry to this organization.

In the framework of WTO entry Russia has finished bilateral talks wit hall the 60 partner states, Kazakhstan - with 22 countries, Belarus – with about 10 countries.

Commenting on the intention of the three countries to join the organisation collectively, World Trade Organizations’ director general Pascal Lamy state din June: “I am disoriented, confused. The WTO members still do not know what the next steps would be. For the WTO members it’s time to play serious law poker”.

Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization as a part of the Customs Union is “unworkable, unprecedented” and it will “only delay matters”, said Gary Locke, United States Secretary of Commerce.