Kazakhstan Brussels, 17 November 2017

On 20-23 November the European Commission’s body for Technical Assistance and Information Exchange – TAIEX – will hold two workshops in Astana, Kazakhstan on technical barriers to trade and intellectual property rights.

The workshops will bring together leading EU experts in public administration from several EU Member States and their Kazakh counterparts from Astana and various regions of Kazakhstan. The EU Member State officials will present EU legislation and best practices in the area of technical barriers to trade and intellectual property rights. The aim is to facilitate the implementation of the EU–Kazakhstan Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) in trade and investment.

More than 115 people are expected to attend the workshops, which have been organised by the European Commission and the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan and which are funded through the EU Partnership Instrument, in close cooperation with the Government of Kazakhstan.

The four-day event will consist of two workshops:

• 20-21 November – The Workshop on Technical Barriers to Trade aims to present the EU technical regulation, accreditation, standardisation, measuring and weighing systems, and practice. The aim is to see which elements could be used in the Kazakhstan–Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) environment and to consider which aspects of Kazakhstan–EAEU practice could be adapted to align the system to the EU’s. The event is organised in cooperation with the Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of Investment and Development of Kazakhstan.

• 22-23 November – The Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights and Border Measures to present and discuss EU legislation and practices on intellectual property rights protection in different areas. The event is organised in cooperation with Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan.

Background information

The Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) between the EU and Kazakhstan was signed on 21 December 2015 and entered into provisional application on 1 May 2016. The Agreement upgrades trade cooperation with a commitment to ensure the application of fundamental WTO rules and principles in bilateral trade relations between the EU and Kazakhstan. This will ensure a better regulatory environment for business in areas such as trade in services, the establishment and operation of companies, capital movements, procurement and intellectual property rights.

Over the past decades, the EU has become Kazakhstan’s biggest trading partner, accounting for with almost 40% of Kazakhstan’s trade in 2016, and the largest foreign investor, representing over half of total Foreign Direct Investment in Kazakhstan. In 2016 bilateral trade was more than EUR 17 bn and is increasing in 2017.