Ag Exports, Customs Facilitation Focuses of Kazakh Talks

A joint statement from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the president of Kazakhstan said that the Central Asian country wants to cooperate on trade facilitation, including harmonizing and digitizing customs procedures, and that both countries committed to "make concrete progress in the near term to include additional U.S. meat and poultry production facilities, streamline the issuance of digital export certificates, and work to facilitate increased shipments of U.S. agricultural equipment to Kazakhstan."

USTR Katherine Tai met with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev June 14, but the statement wasn't released until June 20. It said that under the U.S.-Central Asia Trade and Investment Framework, there's been progress on "sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs, intellectual property, women’s economic empowerment, and digital trade."