On March 15-16, 2012, the GUAM Secretariat in Kyiv hosted the 12th meeting of the Working Group on Economy and Trade under the chairmanship of Georgia. This event involved representatives of relevant agencies, the embassies of GUAM member states, and the GUAM Secretariat.
Participants of the meeting shared information about trade turnover between the GUAM countries in the year 2011.
The attendees discussed and agreed upon a draft of the Protocol on the procedure for the creation and activity of a working body to coordinate the actions of parties to the Agreement on Creating a Free Trade Zone between GUAM member states, dated July 20, 2002. Participants in the meeting also discussed and agreed in principle to the draft of the regulations determining the country origin of goods.
The GUAM Secretariat informed participants about the Forum of Property Developers of Azerbaijan and Georgia (to be held in Tbilisi on April 30, 2012) and offered considering the possibility of inviting specified property developers from other GUAM member states to the event.
The attendees also took part in the First International Conference “Modern payment and settlement systems – tendencies and prospects 2012”, which was organized by the “Bankir” magazine (Ukraine) together with the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM. During the Conference, the GUAM Secretariat gave a presentation on the functioning of the free trade zone and the proposed mechanism for creation of a feedback system between representatives of business and government structures within the framework of the functioning of the GUAM free trade zone.
The participants agreed to hold the next meeting of the Working Group in the second half of 2012. The date and place of the meeting will be agreed upon through diplomatic channels at a later time.
