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improving. “Physical volumes of exports of non-energy commodities increased by 7% while prices rose by 5.8%. Domestic manufacturers stepped up exports to all regions of the world. We are approaching the current five-year target, namely to secure equal distribution of exports across three major markets. The share of the EAEU decreased to 41.2% while that of the EU increased to 30.2% and that of other countries to 28.6%. However, these results should not make anybody complacent,” Vladimir Makei said.
The review also stated that Belarus aims to an accession to the World Trade Organization , which is being negotiated now, fully complies with this aim.
“We have stepped up the work on the WTO accession since 2016 and already approached the final stage of the talks. We are preparing the third edition of the draft report of the Working Group on Belarus' Accession to the WTO (the final document stating the conditions of WTO membership), which will be presented in February 2019,” the ministry said.
As of December 2018, Belarus completed bilateral negotiations on market access for goods and services with 20 WTO member states. Ten similar agreements were concluded in the last two years (six in 2017 and four in 2018).
The talks are still underway with six more WTO members (Australia, Brazil, the EU, Canada, the USA, Ukraine).
5.2 Balance of payments, current account
Belarus -Trade 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Trade: External balance on goods and -645 2,935 -2,378 -606 60 -44 72.4 services (USD mn)
Trade: External balance on goods and -1.04 4.47 -3.15 -0.77 0.11 -0.09 / services (% of GDP)
Trade: Goods exports (BoP) (USD mn) 40,928 45,574 36,540 35,423 26,164 23,100 28,657
Trade: Goods imports (BoP) (USD mn) 44,394 45,009 41,134 38,334 28,307 25,611 31,576
Trade: Current account balance (USD mn) -5,053 -1,862 -7,567 -5,228 -1,831 -1,675 -931.4
Trade: Current account to GDP (%)
-8.2 -2.8 -10.0 -6.6 -3.2 -3.5 -5.3
17 BELARUS Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com