BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/08/2006

Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia to ink docs on Customs Union in 2007

Kazakhstan today

ALMATY. The EurAsEC presidents decided that Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan as the countries, which have advanced furthest in creating the Customs Union legislation basis, will exercise efforts to set up the Union faster yesterday, August 16, in Sochi. The countries have been tasked with preparing all the necessary documents on the Customs Union formation by late 2006 to sign them in H1 2007. The rest of the EurAsEC member-states will accede to the agreements prepared by the three as soon as they are ready to, Andrei Kobyakov, vice premier of Belarus, told the press yesterday, August 16, Kazakhstan Today reports citing BELTA agency.

He explained, in recent years Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the Russian Federation have been actually fulfilling two parallel integration processes - as part of EurAsEC and the Single Economic Space. "At a certain stage emerging agreements started intertwining and the choice was made in favour of the SES documents. The effort resulted in a kind of superstructure: there are 36 signed agreements on setting up the Customs Union within the EurAsEC framework, but the number is not enough. On the other hand, 38 top priority documents on setting up the Customs Union within the SES framework were almost ready. The secretariat of the EurAsEC Integration Committee informed the presidents that over 20 SES agreements should be added to the 36 ready agreements EurAsEC has to complete the Customs Union foundation," noted Andrei Kobyakov.

As the processes were primarily handled by three SES states, it was decided that Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia should accelerate the Customs Union establishment, he added.

Source:

http://eng.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=79225