Kazakhstan joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) involves some risks, since the level of tariff protection will be lower than the common customs tariff of the EEU, Russian Minister for Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said.
"Of course, there are certain problems, risks. They are related to the fact that the conditions of Kazakhstan's accession to the WTO implies the decline of a large number of positions of the level of tariff protection. Lower than the common customs tariff established in the Eurasian Economic Union," he told Russia-24.
Ulyukayev pointed to two problems: "a technical one – together with our Kazakh colleagues we must ensure customs administration of a quality that would not allow goods from third countries to enter our markets through the lower barrier and distort trade conditions which we agreed on when we entered the World Trade Organization. The second direction is that, according to the rules of the WTO, after a three-year transition period the country has the right to apply for an adjustment of the tariffs and the refinement of compensation which can be obtained in the form of improving tariffs for others' positions."
"We have already established an interagency working group to address these issues and we plan to discuss them at the platform of the EEC," TASS cited the press service of the ministry for economic development.
