The paper describes the results of the
survey of enterprises conducted by the IPM
Research Center in order to identify their views on
the impact of accession of Belarus to the WTO on
the country’s economy and national business. The
results of the survey show that Belarusian
enterprises are generally positive about the
possible accession to the WTO. The number of
those who believe that the country should become
a member of this organization in the near future is
significantly more than the number of those who
do not agree with this (44.7% and 9.9%,
respectively). According to the survey, the
representatives of Belarusian enterprises believe
that membership in the WTO will promote the
economic development of Belarus, both in the
short-term perspective and, especially, in the long
run. In particular, they expect growth of
attractiveness for foreign direct investment of the
sector or industry in which they operate. Despite
the fact that the enterprises understand that
accession to this international organization will
lead to increased competition, the majority of them
do not carry out any measures to adapt to the
conditions of Belarus’membership in the WTO and
count on government support to a great extent.
However, both private and state-owned enterprises
do not expect the state to provide direct
compensation of losses from the budget, but
primarily to improve the business climate. It was
called a top-priority measure by 43.5% of stateowned
and 37% of private enterprises. An
important conclusion to be drawn from the survey
is the lack of knowledge among enterprises both
about the basic rules and regulations of the WTO
(only 23.3% of the respondents stated they were
aware of them) and a wide range of issues related
to the country’s accession to this organization. This
is particularly evidenced by a high proportion of
businesses that found it difficult to answer the
survey questions. In turn, this means that
businesses cannot articulate their position and
interests and communicate them to business
associations, ministries, departments and local
authorities, who, in turn, cannot report them to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the body
responsible for negotiating, and to the
representatives of the Belarusian delegation at the
negotiations.