Bakhyt Sultanov: Results of negotiations in Europe

Source https://www.facebook.com/bakhyt.sultanov

The next foreign business trip was part of the preparatory work for the first official visit of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the European Union at the end of this month. On the same days, the visit of the head of state to the Swiss Confederation and his participation in the opening ceremony of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC-12), which will be held in Geneva under the chairmanship of Kazakhstan, are planned.

Therefore, my current working week began with important contacts with European politicians and business in Brussels. During the meetings, we discussed issues of deepening trade and economic cooperation, topical issues of regional policy and, of course, the preparations for the MK-12.

The EU is one of the key trade and investment partners. Europe accounts for half of the foreign trade turnover. In just 9 months of this year, mutual trade amounted to $20.8 billion, $16.7 billion of which is our exports (last covid year, the volume was almost a third lower).

With my interlocutors in Brussels, we agreed that in order to minimize losses from the coronacrisis, large-scale cooperation of all countries is required. Each State takes measures to protect against covid individually, but they should not become a barrier to trade flows. The world has not yet restored the supply chains that were broken last year.

It is not for nothing that one of the topics to be discussed at MK-12 will be initiatives in the field of trade and healthcare, covering a lot of issues: from the temporary refusal to protect intellectual property rights for vaccines and covid medicines to the ban on export restrictions of medicines. At a meeting with the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) Kunio Mikuria, we were just discussing effective trade policy measures to overcome the consequences of the public health crisis.

Among other things, we talked about this with the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis. The Vice-President of the European Commission confirmed the EU's commitment to finding optimal solutions within the framework of MK-12. This is very important, because the outcome of the Conference will be crucial for restoring confidence in the multilateral trading system.

Nevertheless, the key topic at the meeting with the Vice-President of the EC was the topic of bilateral trade relations. The successful implementation of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Kazakhstan and the EU regional Strategy play an important role in them. The documents serve as a guideline for us and indicate the common interests of regional partners. Mr. Dombrovskis noted the leading role of Kazakhstan in the region and suggested using the potential of the SRPS for the joint development of healthcare, green economy and agriculture markets.

The members of the European Parliament with whom I met also agree with him: Chairman of the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament, participant of the WTO Parliamentary Conference Bernd Lange, Chairman of the EP delegation for Central Asia Fulvio Martuschello and Head of the EU–Kazakhstan Friendship Group in the EP Ryszard Czarnecki. Everyone is determined to strengthen the dialogue with our country and expand trade ties.

I discussed how to do this technically with the head of the Tessenderlo Group, a large industrial concern, with numerous subsidiaries working, among other things, in the production of nutrients and plant protection products, processing by-products of animal origin. Among them are world leaders in the production of gelatin and collagen peptides. "Tessenderlo Group" is interested in Kazakhstan both because of the availability of raw materials, and because of the favorable location near the largest markets. I suggested that they consider the sites of border industrial trade and logistics hubs for work.

Overall, the trip was productive. EU representatives are committed to a constructive dialogue with Kazakhstan and deepening partnership.