BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25.06 / 11:18

Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia divided on list of CES documents

KIEV-ASTANA, June 25. KAZINFORM. - The four-nation high level group of experts for forming a common economic space met in session in Kiev on Friday to make a decision to present a joint report for their countries' presidents on the work done to draft priority documents, Ukrainian Economics Minister Sergei Teryokhin told a joint news conference.

The deadline for finalizing the report is July 1.

Teryokhin said the report will enable the presidents to agree on a "vector of further cooperation" at the four-party meeting, scheduled for the second half of July, Kazinform quotes Itar-Tass.

Teryokhin confirmed Ukraine's readiness to put its signature to fifteen priority agreements concerning the creation of a free trade zone without any exemptions or restrictions. Ukraine also suggests urgent consideration of another 25 CES documents.

Teryokhin said Ukraine was unprepared to consider the proposed list of 29 urgent documents concerning the creation of a customs union for two reasons.

Firstly, the Ukrainian constitution prohibits delegation of state control functions to supra-national structures. Secondly, Kiev has made up its mind in favor of the strategy of accession to the European Union and for this reason it cannot be a member of two customs unions.

"All principles of tariff and non-tariff policies are very different," he said.

Belarussian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov has said it will be possible to create a free trade zone without exemptions and restrictions only after the common economic space proper has become a reality. He said that in legal terms a four-nation free trade zone was already in existence, however, with certain reservations. He argues that some exemptions may remain in effect, if a new trade zone is formed on the basis of Ukrainian proposals.

Source:

http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=128799;