BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 24
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan has jointed two initiatives of World Trade Organization, Trend reports citing Kazakh Ministry of Trade and Integration.
Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the UN Office in Geneva Zhanar Aitzhanova spoke at the WTO General Council in order to discuss priority issues of the upcoming 12th WTO Ministerial Conference
In her speech, Aitzhanova noted Kazakhstan's accession to two joint statements and initiatives of the WTO member countries - to combat the COVID-19 pandemic ("Trade and Health") and to lift export restrictions on food products purchased by the UN World Food Program for humanitarian purposes.
Ensuring the WTO's contribution to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic is a priority issue for the upcoming 12th WTO Ministerial Conference. In this regard, Kazakhstan attaches great importance to further discussion of relevant issues for making specific decisions at 12th WTO Ministerial Conference.
These WTO statements are aimed at removing unnecessary trade barriers to trade in medicines and goods needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as facilitating the supply of UN-provided critical humanitarian products to countries in need most affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, the initiative to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is supported by 25 WTO member countries, 54 WTO members have joined the statement on the lifting of export restrictions on products purchased by the UN World Food Program.
At the same time, the number of countries supporting these initiatives is steadily growing.
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