Vladimir Putin reminded Eurasec nations about the common Soviet economy.
St Petersburg played host to the prime ministers of the Customs Union (CU) and Eurasec countries. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin heard Soviet reverberations in the integration processes.
Putin started the day in his native city by visiting a youth innovative convention. This event is a kind of children's contribution to the switch of the economy from raw materials production to innovation. Interested in the neuro-computer interface invented by budding scientists from Zelenograd, the prime minister approached it to see the details. According to the description, the interface allows its users to control outside devices with brain power. It registers the electric activity of the brain and issues commands on this basis. "It is possible to understand what a man thinks if this device is attached to his brain, isn't it? This is clear. We won't attach it to my head," Putin was quick on the uptake.
Putin was stunned even more by another device designed by children - a laser scanner of breath alcohol concentration. A girl explained to him that the device registers all stages of alcohol inebriation at a distance of 25 meters. A traffic police officer simply has to put the scanner to the windscreen. Putin crossed himself: "You will give the driver a heart attack!"
However, the main events, albeit not so stunning, awaited the prime minister in the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library. The prime ministers of the CU and Eurasec countries gathered in the library next to the Constitutional Court on the eve of the Constitution Day. The CU of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be launched on January 1, 2010. However, it will take it a long time to acquire practical dimensions. The three countries will receive a common customs tariff and Customs Code by July 2010. There is virtually no customs inspection at the Russian-Belarusian border, and on Friday Kazakhstan and Russia agreed to abandon customs formalities starting from July 1 next year. "Our main goal is to establish mechanisms that would remove domestic barriers and guarantee external control. Emphasising that the appearance of "grey areas" is inadmissible in the CU space, he warned that there should be no obstacles for entrepreneurs, either.
The introduction of the common customs tariff will increase prices for some imports, for instance, meat products. Prices for mutton, horse and goat meat and meat preserves will increase, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Slepnev said at the meeting.
The new tariff will make cars more expensive for the residents of Belarus and Kazakhstan. Refrigerators, medicines, household equipment, clothes and footwear will become more expensive in Kazakhstan. Metal products will cost more in Belarus. Tariff rates in the CU will be unified for 11,000 categories of products. They will be increased for 1,500 Russian products and decreased for only 350. Slepnev did not specify the increase in the cost of products but stressed that there will be no shocking price hikes.
The introduction of the common tariff rates will decrease prices for some products. The Economic Development Ministry expects lower prices on baby food, wool, fabric, photo materials and even exotic juice concentrates.
The forthcoming changes presented by Slepnev in his speech did not evoke any response on behalf of the prime ministers of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Sergei Sidorsky, the Belarusian prime minister noted the "wrong pronunciation" of the republic's name by the speaker. He said in the library's multi-media hall: "I have one remark - our country is called Belarus rather than Byelorussia" and left the hall in the company of Vladimir Putin and Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov. At the meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev in late November, journalists raised the question of the republic's official name. One of the guests asked the Russian leader to call his country Belarus: "Eight letters, the fourth is ‘a' and a soft sign in the end." Medvedev said he could not agree more.
Be that as it may, but it was in the library that Putin recalled the Soviet times: "After the Soviet Union's collapse numerous attempts were made to restore the lost contacts and promote integration in the post-Soviet space. We have heard many critical statements about the CIS and other similar organizations and we must admit that they devoted much time to declarations. But they have been and remain useful organizations."
It followed from the prime ministers' speeches that unlike the CIS, the CU and the Eurasec economic community are viable and may even become effective. "From discussing the question of whether we should have the CU or not we are passing over to the implementation of the earlier voiced proposals," Karimov said. Putin echoed his colleague, saying that "the CU should become the Eurasec's locomotive. Its formation is a serious step towards building a free economic space with free movement of commodities, services and labour."
The CU Commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will present a draft plan of action on forming the common economic space at a meeting in Alma Ata on December 18 of this year.
Pierre Sidibe