U.S., Kazakhstan press open trade

U.S., Kazakhstan press open trade   As part of Kazakhstan’s negotiations this week to join the World Trade Organization, the United States entered a WTO bilateral market access agreement with the Central Asian country.
  The agreement signed on Wednesday will allow U.S. service providers to benefit from expanded opportunities in Kazakhstan’s markets once it joins the WTO. U.S. businesses will be able to continue to expand in Kazakhstan in sectors such as energy, financial services, movies and television, express delivery, and computer services, the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative said.
  President Obama and Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev have pledged their strong support for completion of Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO as soon as possible. Upon accession, Kazakhstan will have to comply with WTO rules on international trade issues such as protection of intellectual property rights, agriculture, application of technical standards, and food safety.
  USTR explained that accession negotiations proceed on two tracks:
  • Bilaterally for terms of market access, including the best commitments made in bilateral negotiations on market access for goods, agriculture and services.
  • Multilaterally on Kazakhstan’s commitments to revise and apply its trade regime to comply with WTO rules on agricultural trade, customs procedures, protection of intellectual property rights, treatment of state-owned or controlled enterprises, transparency and other issues.
  “Following yesterday’s conclusion of Kazakhstan’s bilateral services agreement with the United States, the focus will now shift to the multilateral negotiations at the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland,” USTR said in a statement.