Events

MINSK, 24 October (BelTA) – Belarus’ Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov has asked Poland to assist in advancing the negotiations on Belarus’ accession to the WTO. The Belarusian head of government made this request as he met with Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Finance of Poland, on 24 October, BelTA has learned.

“We would appreciate if Poland, taking into account the interaction with the European Commission, would assist us in some way and help conduct full-fledged negotiations with the European Union on the terms of accession to the WTO by year-end 2016,” the Prime Minister said.

Belarus is not yet a WTO member. “This is not because we are inactive negotiators or we have some problems in this regard. We are negotiating bearing in mind the national interests, and do not set ourselves the goal to join WTO at any cost, just for the sake of joining,” Andrei Kobyakov noted.

In his opinion, now the WTO accession is not the desire of Belarus only. All WTO countries would like to see Belarus among their ranks. “Now is a good time for reaching an agreement on the acceptable terms of Belarus’ joining the WTO,” the Belarusian Prime Minister said.