NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — After nearly two decades of negotiations Kazakhstan joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a move that pleased Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev but also pressured the Eurasian Economic Union to cut its import tariffs.

It has been a long-held ambition of Mr Nazarbayev to secure WTO membership for Kazakhstan and he scheduled a state-of-the-nation address on the eve of the accession to hail it as “a milestone in the history of independent Kazakhstan.”

But Kazakhstan’s WTO membership will have wider implications.

Kazakhstan is the first member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to enter the WTO since the Kremlin- led trade bloc came into existence on Jan. 1. This means Kazakhstan’s bilateral agreement with the WTO will effect the entire EEU.

The EEU includes Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan — which joined the WTO before the EEU existed — and Belarus which is not a WTO member.

The WTO accession document specified that the new rules to which Kazakhstan has committed should also apply to the rest of the EEU.

“There are 23 commitments which contain measures to be undertaken by Kazakhstan and/or the competent bodies of the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union),” the WTO said in Kazakhstan’s accession documents.

This means that the EEU’s high import tariff regime will have to be lowered to meet the agreement that Kazakhstan signed up to.

Fortunately, complying with WTO rules appears to be in line with the EEU’s aspirations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October 2014 that the EEU would adapt to work with the WTO and in October 2015 EEU heads of states said they wanted to harmonise their tariffs to Kazakhstan’s new commitments under the WTO.

Molly O’Neal, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, said reducing the tariff gap between the WTO and the EEU was one of the most important implications of Kazakhstan’s WTO membership.

“Kazakhstan had already agreed [with the WTO] to binding its tariffs on certain products at levels below the common tariff of the EEU,” Ms O’Neal told the Bulletin.

WTO accession should also mean dropping domestic regulations that favour Kazakh companies. This is particularly important in Kazakhstan’s extractive sectors.

ENDS