Kazakhstan hoping to enter WTO by end of year - Nazarbayev

    While opening a session of the ADB Board of Governors in Astana, the country’s capital city President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
    “We are completing the negotiations. We hope to obtain full membership this year”, he said.
    To join the WTO, Kazakhstan must coordinate its obligations related to import duties that are currently in place within the Customs Union [of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus] with the WTO import duties, Director General of the World Trade Organization (DG WTO), Roberto Azevedo, said at talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev on January 24, Tengrinews.kz reported earlier.
    Kazakhstan voiced its intent to enter the WTO back in 1996. The same year, the nation obtained observer status in the organization, according to www.tengrinews.kz.