VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Ms Nabiullina, it is natural that even close neighbours sometimes have disagreements, in view of the special character of their relations and wide-ranging cooperation. Recently, we have had a dispute with our Belarusian partners over agricultural production imports. And such disputes usually continue until we establish common market rules. So we need to work out common rules, create new customs unions, etc.
We have decided to establish a Customs Union with our closest partners: Kazakhstan and Belarus. And this is our key priority. I have a few questions in this context.
How are we going to organise this work? And how are we going to build further cooperation with the World Trade Organisation? We must not lose the agreements we developed with the WTO. We decided long ago that we would respect the WTO rules when dealing with our partners, regardless of their geographical position. We should continue this process with our Belarusian and Kazakh colleagues. How will you organise this?
Elvira Nabiullina: The first issue: On June 9, the EurAsEC Interstate Council made several key decisions concerning the unified customs tariff together with Belarus and Kazakhstan and the establishment of the Customs Union to make it work by January 1, 2010.
In order to implement your decisions, we have some key objectives to fulfil. First, we should finish developing the Unified Customs Code. The draft code will be discussed by all countries at a meeting of the Customs Union commission on June 25. Second, we should work out a mechanism of collecting and distributing the customs tariffs in order to act in the interests of all the countries and avoid a loss of revenues because of poor administration.
One of the key objectives is to harmonise technical regulations. The milk row showed that we have some issues to discuss with our Belarusian partners. We need to do that both before creating the Customs Union, and after the Union is established. We trade with each other, so we need unified regulations and production to avoid problems like this one with milk imports.
Vladimir Putin: Including the size of subsidies.
Elvira Nabiullina: Yes, of course. Because if one country grants more subsidies than the others, and its milk price is artificially lowered, this will throw its foreign rivals out of the market.
Vladimir Putin: This concerns not only milk, but also other goods.
Elvira Nabiullina: Yes, absolutely. We need to harmonise regulations on providing subsidies. We have completed our part of the work, including negotiating about entering the WTO. And we have technical regulations more or less harmonised. Other members of the Customs Union should do this, too.
There is one more problem, which also escalated during this milk row with Belarus. We have to work out a unified policy in some sectors and markets that are regulated by the Government and where we are able to compete.
It is natural that producers compete on the market. And we need a joint agricultural policy, and we have made the first steps towards this goal: We have mechanisms of production, consumption and trade of key products. There are 32 mechanisms, including milk and powdered milk. Now, we are adjusting these mechanisms to the current conditions. This is a normal process, we are just making it more effective, working out sanctions that should be imposed if these mechanisms do not work. This will be a step towards a coordinated policy.
Regarding the second issue, we do not consider the Customs Union to be an alternative to the WTO. We enter the WTO together, because we should act as a union when dealing with issues that are regulated by the organisation.
At the moment, the Russian, Kazakh and Belarusian delegations are on a visit to Geneva to discuss the optimum format for negotiations with representatives of the WTO Secretariat and the member states in order not to lose the agreements we already have. We have travelled the greater part of the road during our many-year talks with this organisation. Kazakhstan has done a lot of work, and Belarus has held talks on joining the WTO. We need to develop the format, to...
Vladimir Putin: The teamwork format.
Elvira Nabiullina: ...yes, to retain the previous agreements and work out a common position on key issues that are regulated by the WTO.
Vladimir Putin: But we also need to make sure the WTO treats our countries as one partner.
Elvira Nabiullina: That is the objective. We should develop such a format in order not to start this process from scratch.
