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Thu, 30 Jul, 2015 12:42:06 AM FTimes Report, July 30  Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev (L) exchanges documents with World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo during the signing ceremony of the accession of Kazakhstan to the trade body on July 27, 2015, at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. Nazarbayev has hailed the "new horizons" that WTO membership will offer for central Asia's largest economy, but analysts have warned that the step may be little more than a public relations boon for the government in the short-term. Photo – AFP / Lehtikuva. Kazakhstan's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was brought to a conclusion on 27 July 2015. Kazakhstan has become the WTO's 162nd member.
Finland held the chairmanship of Kazakhstan's WTO accession process during its entire twenty-year history, said a press release of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs issued on Wednesday.
"The process was difficult and complicated in the final stages due to, for example, Kazakhstan's membership of the Eurasian Economic Union. The end result was, however, assessed excellent. Customs duties, for example, were set at a low level," says Counsellor Vesa Himanen, who served as chairman of Kazakhstan's WTO accession talks for eight years.
"The process is significant as with the achieved accession the WTO's multilateral trade system was expanded to a new import region. The accession also removes barriers to trade," says Himanen.
During WTO accession talks, the applicant country negotiated with the WTO member countries on ways of implementing the existing WTO trade agreement and committed itself to liberalisation of trade and reduction of various supports, said the release.
The accession talks were conducted with all WTO members.
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka considered Kazakhstan's accession important to Finland.
"The accession improves the potential of economic cooperation between Finland and Kazakhstan. This falls perfectly within the State's remit aimed at benefiting businesses by trade liberalisation and it serves as an example of practical level Team Finland work. Finland's input in the process was concrete and this has improved our visibility in Kazakhstan," Toivakka says.
Trade between Finland and Kazakhstan is showing an upward trend. Especially imports from Kazakhstan are growing fast, according to the release.
With the accession, the rules of the WTO are now in force which clarifies and facilitates trade. "The tied customs duties also improve predictability," says Himanen.
Accession negotiations are underway with, for example, Algeria, Liberia and Belarus.
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