Economy25/01/2008Three EurAsEC members to create legal base for Customs Union
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will sign the documents at a EurAsEC meeting in Moscow at the level of the heads of government. The package includes agreements on unified regulation of customs tariffs, on import duties regarding third countries, and on special anti-dumping and protective measures regarding third countries, according to a Russian government official.
The official recalled the decision to create a customs union had been approved by the presidents of all the six EurAsEC members, including Kirgizia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan "will not create an independent organization. The signing of the documents by the three countries means they are better ready for the creation of an integration association," the official said.
Kirgizia, which is a WTO member, has to streamline all the formalities in the international organization, however the latest political turmoil in the Central Asian republic did not allow to do that.
"Tajikistan joined the creation of the Customs Union later and the level of its tariffs correlation is far behind that of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan," the official said.
"Uzbekistan has only recently joined the economic community and will join the process of accession to the Customs Union later," he added.
The official said Russia and Belarus have streamlined their customs tariffs by 90 percent, while the figure for the three signatories was 65-70 percent. "At present there are no barriers to increase the correlation level, but that has to be done taking into account that the process of joining the WTO has not been completed," he said.
EurAsEC press service said the package of documents "is aimed to establish a single trade regime with third countries. They determine the construction of the future Customs Union and envisage a gradual transfer of powers in foreign trade regulation to a Customs Union commission, which a EurAsEC summit decided to create last October in Dushanbe".