The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the United States amounted to $ 949.1 million.

The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the United States amounted to $ 949.1 million.

Nur-Sultan, August 4, 2021-The Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan together with the Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan held online consultation talks with the Assistant to the US Trade Representative K. Wilson on strengthening trade and economic relations between Kazakhstan and the United States.

The main issue on the agenda was the discussion of the adoption of a new US law on the General System of Preferences( GSP), discussion of topical issues of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as the current situation on trade union and trade and economic relations.

Thus, Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Protection A. Sarbasov informed USTR representatives about the current situation on topical issues of the legislation of Kazakhstan in relation to trade union organizations.

Further, regarding trade relations with the United States, Vice Minister of Trade and Integration K. Torebayev noted that the trade turnover between the countries in 2020 amounted to $ 1.7 billion, which is 24.9% lower than the previous year ($2.2 billion).

However, the indicators for the 6 months of this year tend to increase. The trade turnover amounted to $949.1 million, an increase of 6%.

  1. Torebayev informed his American colleagues about the current situation in Kazakhstan on the development of electronic commerce, the transition to green technologies in the environment, the development of women's rights and other issues that are new criteria at the heart of the updated rules of the GSP.

The representative of the Ministry of Trade noted that e-commerce is actively discussed on international platforms, including being one of the key issues on the agenda of the upcoming 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC-12).

"The goal of the MC-12 is 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 MC-12, " said Kairat Torebayev.

In this regard, the Vice Minister proposed to organize a meeting of the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan B. Sultanov with the US Trade Representative K. Tai for a substantive discussion of the upcoming agenda of the WTO MC-12 and all topical issues of bilateral cooperation.

In addition, the parties discussed the possibility of providing technical assistance on cooperation with countries that are subject to various trade restrictions.

Following the meeting, the parties thanked each other for a meaningful dialogue and agreed to continue close cooperation.