Kazakhstan says it is facing difficulties joining the WTO because of the Customs Union agreements, BelTA learned.
"Kazakhstan's WTO accession is a very serious issue," Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council.
"We were walking in the footsteps of Russia. We were promised support with the WTO accession. The Bali Conference will take place in December this year. Kazakhstan's accession could have been formalized then. But it will not happen because we supported the level of protection of Russia. This is probably the issue between Russia and Kazakhstan, but this applies to Belarus too," he said.
In this regard, the President of Kazakhstan said that the Russian-Kazakh delegation needs to negotiate with the European Union and the United States, "that do not allow us there [the WTO - note by BelTA]."
"They insist we join from the positions we defended before joining the Customs Union. In this case we will have a problem with the Customs Union in Kazakhstan," said the President of Kazakhstan.