An official ceremony of Kazakhstan’s entrance to World Trade Organization was to be held Monday in Geneva, World Bulletin reported. The start of accession negotiations are dated back 20 years ago, and were completed on June 10, 2015. In his address to the people, President Nursultan Nazarbayev called it a historic event. “This is a historic event for us. All the leading global economies have recognized Kazakhstan to be a country with favorable investment climate that pursues its trade policy in compliance with norms of international law,” the president said. According to Nazarbayev, talks took so long because sensitive topics for the Central Asian republic’s economy had to be dealt with cautiously. “Support for agriculture was one of the thorniest issues for discussion because they demanded that we reduce agricultural subsidies but we defended our stance,” the president said. “We managed to combine the requirements of the WTO and the Eurasian Economic Union proceeding with our national interests,” he stressed. After signing the accession treaty, Kazakhstan parliament will have to ratify it within next six months.
