OREANDA-NEWS. July 18, 2012. Belarus plans to take “a firm decision” on WTO accession by late 2013, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Guryanov told a press-conference on June 29.

This is a favourable forecast based on expectations that negotiations on WTO accession will run smoothly, with no hurdles created by negotiators, Guryanov said.

Belarus is about to launch the fourth stage of the negotiation process, Kazakhstan is almost through that stage, while Russia completed it some time ago, Guryanov said.

Belarus plans to hold a meeting of the Working Party in September in order to reach the final round, said the Foreign Ministry representative.

The final WTO negotiations should run faster for for Belarus than for Russia and Kazakhstan, because the tariff commitments which Russia negotiated for a long time are uniform in the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space and Belarus has no mandate to make further concessions to WTO member states.

On its way to WTO membership, Belarus has already completed negotiations with 10 counties and there are another 10 to work though to discuss access to financial markets, currency regulations, investments, systemic measures in economy, and intellectual property.

Belarus hopes the final stage will be more like a routine job with Russia’s advisory assistance.

At the same time, Belarus hopes the European Union and the United States will not mix politics with the WTO negotiation process, Guryanov said.

“We are talking about the technical stage of negotiations, where experts on business and commerce are involved. Politics have nothing to do with that,” the vice minister said.

Belarus hopes WTO key players will be pragmatic enough to refrain from raising political issues regarding Belarus’ accession process, especially since the WTO positions itself as an economic organization, Guryanov said.