On the participation of Belarus Permanent Representative in Geneva Yury Ambrazevich in a special meeting of the General Council of the World Trade Organization
15.05.2020On May 15, 2020, the Permanent Representative of Belarus in Geneva Yury Ambrazevich took part in a special meeting of the WTO General Council by videoconference. During the meeting more than 50 WTO members and observers discussed possible areas of work for the multilateral trading system to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his statement the Permanent Representative of Belarus emphasized that multilateral diplomacy, coordination and transparency play a key role in overcoming the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is noted that Belarus notified the WTO of national trade measures adopted against the backdrop of the pandemic and agreed with the majority of WTO members that such measures should be reasonable, proportionate, transparent and temporary and should not create additional barriers to international trade.
Ambassador Yury Ambrazevich confirmed Belarus’s interest in the speedy formalization of WTO membership on mutually acceptable conditions. In this regard, the representative of Belarus has called on WTO members to keep the issue of accession of new countries in the list of their priorities and reaffirmed the readiness for constructive interaction with all interested partires in each of the negotiation areas.
