DUSHANBE, November 21, 2012, Asia-Plus — A series of six one-day workshops on raising Tajik business awareness of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has started in Dushanbe today.
Mr. Saidmumin Kamolov, National Program Manager International Trade Center (ITC), says the International Trade Center brings together the representatives of Tajik textile and clothing companies, large enterprises of other sectors, as well as the representatives of the entities dealing with standardization and conformity assessment in six cities of the country to improve understanding and skills of Tajikistan business private sector on benefits, challenges and business implications of WTO membership of the country.
The workshops are held under ITC project on “Implementation of WTO Provisions and Business Awareness of WTO Accession” funded by the Government of Switzerland through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Mr. Edil Kalashev, ITC International Consultant on TBT, says, “The workshops are aimed to increase the understanding of the private sector in the agro-industrial and textile sectors on WTO measures to stimulate free and fair trade at the international level and to minimize technical barriers, which can restrict trade. These steps are officially included in the WTO Agreement on technical barriers to trade (TBT) and will be the main topic for discussions in the workshops.”
Mr. Kalashev added the workshops would help Tajik private sector to gain the knowledge on the WTO rules and ways to develop skills for access to foreign markets after Tajikistan’s accession to WTO.
The International Trade Center (ITC), through its on-going technical assistance project, is committed to support the Tajikistan private sector to understand and become engaged on the important topic of Tajikistan’s nearing WTO Membership. The project is a component TWO of SECO’s Trade Cooperation Program (TCP) in Tajikistan. The TCP’s overall objective is to contribute to the implementation of complex domestic reforms in Tajikistan to become a full member of the WTO.
