Taiwan gets behind Belarus' bid to join WTO in Geneva

A senior trade official in Geneva has made clear Taiwan's support for Belarus's bid to join the WTO, saying that positive results from future bilateral consultations with the former Soviet nation's WTO bid will reinforce relations between the two countries.

Kou Shio-tie (高碩泰), Taiwan's deputy permanent representative to the WTO, passed on Taipei's message of support at the fifth WTO working group meeting for Belarus's bid to join the world trade regulatory body on Friday in Geneva.

During the meeting, Kao also said that future bilateral consultations between Taiwan and Belarus on the latter's WTO bid will certainly bring a lot of trade opportunities to the two countries.

Pointing out that the government has been preparing detailed lists of goods and services as topics for consultations, the official said that Taiwan will put forth the preliminary lists in the coming few weeks.

It is expected that during consultations with Belarus, Taiwan will express its concern over such trade items as computers, computer parts, semiconductors and fuel products, among others.

Taiwan has attached great importance to WTO bids of all commonwealth independent states and hopes to strengthen its trade and economic relations as well as other relations with these countries through consultations with them within their WTO bids.

Taiwan's permanent mission to the WTO recently held an informal meeting with its Belarus counterpart in Geneva as well as establishing a good communication channel between the two delegations.