Bakhyt Sultanov held talks with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai

On July 15 2021, the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan B. Sultanov held talks with the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

The parties discussed a number of issues, the solution of which would contribute to the expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the countries.

The minister noted that the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the United States in 2020 amounted to $ 1.7 billion, which is 24.9% lower than the previous year ($2.2 billion), and the indicators of the 5 months of this year tend to increase (the trade turnover amounted to $749.8 million, an increase of 0.2%).

Kazakhstan is a beneficiary of the General System of Preferences (GSP). Knowing about the revision of the GSP criteria in the United States, the minister noted that «we are interested in fundamentally «new» requirements (criteria) and the timing of the adoption of the law, as well as the possibility of reimbursement of duties paid before the law came into force.»

During the negotiations, the minister also mentioned the protracted issue regarding the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment in relation to Kazakhstan, and asked for assistance from the US Presidential Administration in resolving this issue.

As part of the discussion of cooperation with Iran, the head of the Ministry proposed to hold seminars together with the US Trade Mission (USTR) to train domestic specialists to work with exporters from Kazakhstan for building commercial relations, that do not violate the current sanctions regime.

One of the main topics for discussion was the agenda of the upcoming
12th WTO Ministerial Conference.

As the Minister noted, this conference is distinguished by the fact that acute problems of world trade are on the agenda.

«Given the current situation, as well as the unpredictability of the pandemic, I believe that pragmatism will be crucial. In this context, it is necessary to put the Organization on a trajectory that will stimulate work for the coming years. We see a significant role of the United States in achieving significant results on the substantive issues of the MC12,» B. Sultanov said.

In general, following the results of the MC12 the Head of the Ministry of trade and integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan outlined four issues, on which it is important to achieve good results:

- ensuring access to vaccines and medical products for all countries;

- subsidizing fishing;

- cooperating in the field of agriculture;

- reforming WTO.