RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/ACC/KAZ/43 
2 March 2004 
 
 (04-0921) 
Working Party on the 
Accession of Kazakhstan Original:   English 
 
 
  
ACCESSION OF KAZAKHSTAN 
 
Memorandum on Foreign Trade Legislation
 
 
Changes in Legislation Regarding Foreign Trade  
  The following submission is being circulated at  the request of the Delegation of the Republic 
of Kazakhstan. 
 
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  Herewith we present information on the work c onducted towards bringing  national legislation 
on foreign trade into conformity with the regula tions and principles of the WTO Agreement.   
 
 Table 1 shows the Laws on Foreign Trade enacted from May 2003 up to date.   
Table 1
 
 
No. Name of Law Date of Signing by 
the President of RK 
1. On amendments to the Law of the Repu blic of Kazakhstan "On notariat" 5.05.2003 
2. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan with 
respect to the securities market and joint-stock companies  16.05.2003 
3. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan with 
respect to mortgage lending  3.06.2003 
4. On amendments to the Law of the Repu blic of Kazakhstan "On Advocacy"  3.06.2003 
5. On amendments to the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative 
Violations  3.06.2003 
6. On insurance payments' guarantee fund 3.06.2003 
7. On public health system  4.06.2003 
8. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan with 
respect to standardization and certification 10.06.2003 
9. On amendments to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the 
Development Bank of Kazakhstan"  11.06.2003 
10. On amendments to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On insurance 
activity"   11.06.2003 
11. On mandatory insurance of the civil liability of the private notaries  11.06.2003 
12. On national regulatio n of production and turnover of the tobacco goods  12.06.2003 
13. On mandatory insurance of the civil liability of auditors and audit 
organizations  13.06.2003 
14. The Land Code  20.06.2003 
15. On mandatory insurance of the carriers' civil liability to the passengers  1.07.2003 
16. On mandatory insurance of the civil liability of the owners of vehicles  1.07.2003 
17. On amendments to the Law of the Repu blic of Kazakhstan "On licensing" 1.07.2004 WT/ACC/KAZ/43 
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 No. Name of Law Date of Signing by 
the President of RK 
18. On securities market  2.07.2003 
19. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan with 
respect to architectural, town-planning and construction activity  2.07.2003 
20. On amendments to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Plant 
Quarantine"   3.07.2003 
21. On national regulation and supervision of the financial market and financial 
organizations  4.07.2003 
22. On auto transport  4.07.2003 
23. The Forest Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan  8.07.2003 
24. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan with 
respect to the promissory note circulation, payments and money transfers   9.07.2003 
 
25. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan with 
respect to entrepreneurship  13.10.2003 
26. On amendments to the Law of the Repub lic of Kazakhstan "On grain"  13.10.2003 
27. On national monitoring of the property in strategically important branches of 
the economy  4.11.2003 
28. On amendments to the Law of th e Republic of Kazakhstan "On special 
economic zones in the Re public of Kazakhstan" 4.12.2003 
29. On advertising  19.12.2003 
30. On making changes to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On mass 
media"  19.12.2003 
31. On amendments to some legislative acts of the Re public of Kazakhstan with 
respect to regulation of land relations  29.12.2003 
32. On obligatory insurance of the civil liability of tourist operators and agencies  31.12.2003 
33. On amendments to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On employment 
of the population"  27.01.2004 
34. On medicines  13.02.2004 
  
Main elements of above-mentioned laws: 
 1. The law establishes additional qualification re quirements for persons seeking to become 
notary officers; the minimal fee for the notary operations and adjusts the functions of the 
justice authorities and notary chambers.  
 
2. The law makes amendments with respect to the registration and re-registration of the legal 
entities as a whole and joint-stock companies in  particular; regulation of the legal entities 
establishment, activity of the joint-stock comp anies and securities circulated on the territory 
of the Republic of Kazakhstan, specification of  the order of the state registration of the 
securities.   
 3. The Law makes changes with r espect to the registration of the mortgage property as the  
security for the mortgage bonds, issue and circul ation of the mortgage bonds, execution of the 
bankruptcy procedure taking into account the rights to the mortgage bonds. The legal capacities of the banks are extended, particularly, by the right to represent the interests of the 
third parties on the issues related to the bank's ac tivity and the interests of the mortgage loan 
shareholders and other secured bonds.  
 4. The major aim of the Law is to improve the pr ocedural representation of the advocates in the 
judicial proceedings and creation of equal legal opportunities for defense as well as 
prosecution to create competition in judicial processes. 
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 5. The Law is aimed to include into the Code on Administrative Violations the regulations on 
administrative liability of the private notary o fficers, auditors and auditing companies for 
resistance to sign a contract on mandatory insu rance of their civil liability, untimely payment 
or incomplete payment of the obligatory fees to the guarantee fund for the performance of the 
insurance payments to insurers (insured pe rsons, insurance beneficiaries) under obligatory 
liquidation of the insurance organization based on the agreements on obligatory insurance.    
 6. The Law is intended to implement the state po licy on the issues of mandatory insurance, 
increase the level of insurers' legal interest s protection (insured persons, insurance 
beneficiaries), trust of the population and orga nizations in the national insurance market, 
provision of the effective performance of the most mass types of insurance – obligatory 
insurance of the civil liability of the auto tr ansport owners and obligatory insurance of the 
carriers' civil liability to the passengers. 
 7. The law regulates public relations in the field of  the public health and determines the legal, 
organizational, economic and social basis for ac tivity of the public health system of the 
Republic of Kazakhstan.  
 8. The main aim of this Law is to further develop and improve the Republic's current 
standardization system through its harmonizati on with the international requirements and 
principles of WTO.  The Law brings a number of  amendments to the Laws of the Republic of 
Kazakhstan "On Standardizati on" and "On Certification". 
  Particularly, it introduces:  
− adjustments to the concepts harmonized with  the international requirements with the 
provision of the future transition to the voluntary standards; 
− regulations on the GosStandard's approval (N ational Standard) of the translation of 
international, regional, national standards of foreign countries and national standards 
into the state and Russian languages in order to uniform interpretation of the 
requirements of the normative documents on standardi zation;                                               
− requirements for the formation of products catalogues system, sets regulations on 
introduction of the products catalogues system  in Kazakhstan, indicates the products 
to be included in the catalogues; 
− changes regarding organizational structure of  the certification system, ordering of the 
certification authority's, test laboratories and other bodies activities.  
 9. This law amends articles regulating the cont ent of the Development Bank of Kazakhstan's 
Memorandum of its credit policy, its functions , attraction and use of the loans from the 
republican and local budgets by the Developmen t Bank, execution of agent's functions by the 
Bank, its participation in the legal entities' authorized capital. 
 
10. The law is enacted as a result of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On insurance 
payments' guarantee fund" adoption and is aimed at its development.   
 11. The main goal of the obligatory insurance of th e private notary officers' civil liability is to 
protect the property interests of the third persons , who were injured by a private notary officer 
as a result of his actions.  The proposed mechan ism ought to ensure protection of the notary 
officer's legal interests by putting the burden of his possible expenses on satisfying third 
persons' claims on the insurance organization.   
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 12. The law is aimed to ensure protection of the c itizens' health through the state control of the 
quality of tobacco goods produced and imported to  the territory of the Republic Kazakhstan 
as well as the intactness of the payments  of excises to the budget from production and 
distribution of the tobacco goods. 
 
13. The law is passed to ensure a greater level of protection of the persons injured as a result of 
mistakes and omissions related to the audit pe rformed by the auditor (auditing organization). 
 14. The Land Code is aimed to improve the land re lations in order to ensure rational use and 
protection of lands, creation of conditions for equal development of all forms of economic 
management, protection of the citizens' and legal persons rights to land, creation and 
development of the property market as well as st rengthening of the law enforcement in the 
field of land relations.   
 15. The law is passed to aim at ensuring protection of all passengers regardless the type of the 
transportation and carrier.  The scope of this type  of insurance is the property interest of the 
carrier based on its liability to compensate for the injury to life, health and/or property of the 
passengers.  
 16. The law is passed with the goal to protect the interests of both the owners of the transport 
vehicles and those who might have caused them an injury as a result of transport vehicle 
exploitation. 
 17. The law makes changes and additions to the list of the licensed types of activities on the 
issues of forest and water use, securities market, physical culture and sport.  Thus, the list of 
the licensed types of activities include production of tobacco goods, logging of the wood on 
the territory of the national forest fund, special water use (including intake and use of water at 
the volumes of more than fifty cubic meters  per day from the surface water outlets for 
agricultural, industry, energy, fishery and tr ansport purposes, water intake and supply from 
the surface water outlets to the secondary water u ser); physical health improvement activities, 
sport services besides activities in the educa tional organizations. The licensed types of 
activities do not include the activities of self-re gulated organizations of the professional 
participants of the securities market.      
 18. The law is aimed at the development of K azakhstan's securities market, taking into account 
current law enforcement practice and containing  the norms designed to further improve the 
national regulation of the securities market on the issues within the competence of the 
authorized body.   
 19. The law is intended to eliminate discrepanc ies of the legal norms of the Republic of 
Kazakhstan "On architectural, town-planning a nd construction activity in the Republic of 
Kazakhstan" and current legislative acts on the issues of a complex state expertise of the projects for construction of complexes for different branches; increase of the quality of the 
design documentary, provision of the security and reliability of the construction projects, 
effectiveness of investments.   
 20. This law introduces the norm on creation of the pesticides reserves, a number of adjustment 
changes, regulating organization of quarantine measures.  The implementation of the norms 
of this draft law allows taking additional me asures on enhancement of the protection of the 
republic's territory from quarantine objects.   
 21. The law regulates public relations connected w ith the execution of national regulation and 
supervision of the financial market and fina ncial organizations and is aimed to increase  WT/ACC/KAZ/43 
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 stability of the financial system of the Repub lic of Kazakhstan and legal interests of the 
consumers of financial services. The law de termines peculiarities of the regulation and 
supervision of the bank activity, insurance activity, activities of the market and securities 
entities, the pension funds as well as the functions of the authorized body in relation to the regulation and supervision of the financial organizations' activity.  
 
22. This law regulates relations arising between auto  carriers, passengers, consignors, consignees, 
and other legal entities and persons in the sphere  of auto transport. The law establishes the 
rules for proper entry into the territory of  the Republic and its exit for auto vehicles; 
enforcement order of the licensing system on transit through the territory of Kazakhstan of 
foreign vehicles; order of organization a nd execution of the regular and irregular 
transportations of the passengers and luggage; requirements to passengers, drivers and auto 
transport during international motor transportations.        
 23. The Forest Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan establishes the legal basis for the protection, 
resurgence, increase of the ecological and resource potential of the forests and their rational 
use.  
 24. The law is aimed at improvement of the regulat ory base of the payments and money transfers, 
financial (payment) instrument use mechanism,  development of such payment instrument's 
potential as the bill in order to unify the legislation as well as to bring certain norms of the 
Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan into confor mity with the norms of the Civil Code.   
 25. This law amends the classification of the priv ate entrepreneurial entities' activity, as well as 
the limitations of the types of activity that can not be performed by the entities of the small-
scale business.  
 
26. This law makes amendments and additions to  the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On 
grain", in particular, it adjusts the norms for freshening and movement of the state resources of grain, issues of conservation and provision of  the quality of grain, issue order, circulation 
and payment of the grain receipts.   
 
27. This law regulates public relations arising in  the process of national monitoring of the 
property in the strategically important branches of the economy and determines the basis and 
conditions for its performance.  
 28. The law makes additions in the order of creation of the special economical zones. Thus, a 
special economic zone ought to be created for a certain period of time by the Decree of the 
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the advice of the Government of the Republic of 
Kazakhstan, based on the proposal of the corresponding central executive body by the 
agreement with the local representative and executive authorities of the administrative-
territorial unit where a special economic zone is created.  In this case, the management of the 
special economic zone shall be executed by the central executive body appointed by the 
Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.          
  29. The law establishes general and special require ments for advertisement, conditions of its 
production, location, distribution and application, basis and conditions of the liability for an 
inappropriate advertising, pecu liarities of the advertising of certain types of products, 
financial, insurance, investment services and securities.   
 30. In accordance with this law, beginning 1 January  2004 advertisement of the alcohol products 
is banned and advertisement of tobacco and tobacco products ought to be regulated by the WT/ACC/KAZ/43 
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 legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on prevention and limitation of tobacco smoking 
and on advertising.  
 31. The law is passed in aims of bringing the norms of certain legislative acts of the Republic of 
Kazakhstan into conformity with the norms of  the Land Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan 
that would allow avoiding various interpretati ons of the norms of the Land Code and the 
legislative acts with respect to th e issues regulating the land relations. 
 32. The law regulates public relations arising in th e process of obligatory insurance of the civil 
liability of tourist operators a nd agents based on the contract to provide tourist services to 
protect the third parties' property interests, w hose life, health and property had been injured as 
a result of the tourist agents and operators' professional activity.    
 33. The new amendments to the law empower the lo cal executive authorities w ith the authority to 
issue permits on attraction of the foreign la bor force to work on the territory of the 
corresponding administrative unit within the quot a amount established by the Government of 
the Republic of Kazakhstan and distributed by the central executive body as well as suspension and withdrawal of the issued permits . Such measure will allow an increase in the 
permit issue process efficiency, reduction of tim e for their registration and will improve the 
partnership relations with the foreign companies. 
 
34. The aim of the law is to regulate public relations  in the sphere of the medicine circulation, 
medical equipment and products of medical purpose, determination of the legal and 
organizational basis to provide the population w ith safe, effective and quality medical aid. 
  
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