The overall objective of the activity was to support the Government of Belarus in its dialogue with the WTO on the accession process and to be able to provide concrete modelling results on the likely impacts arising from implementing the WTO commitments. In addition, taking due consideration of Belarus’s engagement in the Eurasian Economic Union, the identification of focus markets for creations of Free Trade Areas will encourage Belarus to participate more actively in the economic integration processes and become fully-fledge member of multilateral trading system and promote sustainable growth of the Belarusian economy.
Specific objectives:
1. To assist the key ministries to carry out a comprehensive Impact Assessment Study of WTO accession for Belarus, and to detail such impacts in key sectors of the economy, as well on key economic aggregates;
2. To simulate sector-specific trade policy measures that are to be taken under potential obligations to assess their impact on partial equilibrium;
3. To run different scenarios of potential obligations of Belarus in order to be able to provide recommendations for the access process, scheduling of commitments, phase in periods and key changes needed to domestic legislation and institutional framework to implement the WTO accession protocol and benefits from it;
4. To improve previous modelling techniques and use the latest data;
5. To raise awareness of Belarus’s decision makers, industries, SMEs and general population on the adjustment measures they should take and support their ability to identify better trade strategies in light of WTO accession;
6. Using modelling and simulation techniques to determine a list of potential countries / unions that are beneficial for creating free trade areas both in goods and services for Belarus (with quantitative effects) taking into account that Belarus is a EAEU Member and conclusion of FTA in goods will lead to trade liberalization for all Member States.