Belarus, Some WTO Members Reconcile Positions on Minsk Accession to Bloc

Foreign Ministry said that Belarusian delegation held a set of talks on the country's accession to the World Trade Organization and brought the positions on the issue closer with several organization's members.

MINSK (Sputnik) – The Belarusian delegation held a set of talks on the country's accession to the World Trade Organization and brought the positions on the issue closer with several organization's members, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

"On June 9, 2017 Geneva hosted the next round of negotiations on Belarus’ accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)… The bilateral negotiations on market access for goods and services were held with interested WTO Members, during which the Belarusian delegation managed to bring positions closer and create prerequisites for the completion of negotiations with a number of WTO Members in the second half of 2017," the statement said.

The statement added that the Belarusian delegation also met with the chairman of the Working Party on Belarus’ accession to the WTO, Kemal Madenoglu, and Acting Director of the WTO Accessions Division Maika Oshikawa.

According to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, Minsk submitted a request on joining the WTO, which is an international organization set up to liberalize international trade and regulate trade and political relations between its member states, in 1993.

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