MINSK, 15 February (BelTA) - The next round of negotiations on Belarus' accession to the World Trade Organization will take place in Geneva, Switzerland from 20 to 23 February, Aleksei Bogdanov, head of the main department for foreign economic affairs at the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry told BelTA on 15 February.
“A delegation of the Agriculture and Food Ministry will take part in a session of the WTO Agriculture Committee in Geneva on 20-23 February. We also plan to have a number of bilateral meetings with WTO member states during the visit,” Aleksei Bogdanov noted.
In his words, the delegation plans to discuss the terms of WTO accession for sensitive agricultural goods. “For instance we will discuss the access of high-quality beef to the Belarusian market, sanitary and veterinary measures. We also plan to touch upon tariffs and quotes regulating the access of meat products to our market,” the official added.
Belarus does not intend to “slow down the pace” of the WTO accession process, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia. “After a twelve-year hiatus, we held two meetings of the WTO working group on Belarus' accession in Geneva in January and September. During the meetings, the WTO members expressed support for Belarus on its way to membership in the organization and also praised the quality of our documents. A unanimous decision was made to prepare a draft report of the working group, which actually took the multilateral negotiations to the final stage,” the minister said.
