The second point indicates that the institutional framework for the management of trade affairs will require a clearer strategic vision, better coordination within government and with the private sector, as well as increased human capacity to benefit more from WTO membership and future regional or bilateral agreements. Dentons (2015), «Kazakhstan`s accession to the WTO: new local content requirements,» www.dentons.com/en/insights/alerts/2015/november/17/kazakhstans-accession-to-the-wto-new-local-content-requirements. The World Bank (2015a) estimated that if reforms related to Kazakhstan`s accession to the WTO were accompanied by a 30% reduction in the cost of trade facilitation, the overall impact on welfare would increase by about one percentage point of GDP per year (representing GDP growth of almost 5% by 2020). The OECD analysis using the OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators (IFT) also suggests that the implementation of comprehensive trade facilitation reform, which includes improvements in the 11 sectors covered by the AGREEMENT, could reduce trade costs by about 13% in middle-income countries such as Kazakhstan (Box 6.3). While these estimates are likely to be the ceiling on potential benefits, the government could consider implementing significant reforms to reap benefits. For example, streamlining and automating border processes, particularly using risk management processes – where Kazakhstan is the most below average – has the greatest impact on trade costs in countries such as Kazakhstan. This area should therefore be prioritized by the government, as has already been provided for in the President`s 100 administrative and other strategic documents.20 whereas Kazakhstan`s accession to the WTO will increase by 3.7% of Kazakhstan`s GDP in the medium term and by 9.7% in the long term (with heterogeneity between economic sectors) 3.Opening services to LDs is expected to have by far the greatest impact on the Kazakh economy (more than two-thirds of total profits) (Figure 6.1). It`s discussed first. While the impact of customs reform is expected to be small, the positive effects of common WTO rules on the stability and predictability of Kazakhstan`s customs regulations (i.e. customs obligations, customs assessment rules, etc.) can be significant and will also be discussed in this section.
In some other areas, further reforms, which go well beyond the country`s current WTO commitments, will be needed to help significantly reduce trade costs for businesses. This includes trade facilitation and other reforms aimed at reducing barriers to trade at borders and beyond, whether by changing the internal regulatory process and strengthening cooperation with trading partners.
