Development of the Customs Union within EurAsEC
The goal of organising a customs union with a common customs territory, customs tariffs, standardised mechanisms of economic and trade regulation without customs control on the internal borders of the union member states, was laid out in the Treaty of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space signed between Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan on February 26, 1999.
To facilitate the establishment of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed the Treaty on the Establishment of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) in Astana, Kazakhstan, on October 10, 2000. The treaty was effective as of May 30, 2001. Subsequent work to set up the Customs Union proceeded within EurAsEC.
In October 2007, the heads of the EurAsEC countries adopted a decision to establish the customs union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia within EurAsEC. Other countries are to join it as and when ready.
During a meeting of the Interstate Council of EurAsEC in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on October 10, 2008, the heads of state amended the Regulations and Procedure to give the Interstate Council the authority of the supreme agency of the future Customs Union.
During a meeting of the Interstate Council of EurAsEC in Moscow, Russia, on December 12, 2008, the heads of governments adopted documents regulating the operation of a supranational agency, the Customs Union Commission (CUC). The Commission held its first meeting on February 4, 2009. Russia's Sergei Glazyev was appointed its Executive Secretary.
The documents signed on December 12, 2008 completed a package of 37 documents approved at the October 10, 2008 summit as the legal base of the Customs Union.
On June 9, 2009, a meeting of the heads of government of the Interstate Council of EurAsEC in Moscow coordinated the Common Customs Tariff. The heads of government also approved the proposals on the stages and timeframe for establishing a common customs territory of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia (preliminary stage until January 1, 2010; first stage until July 1, 2010; and second stage until July 1, 2011).
A decision was also made to notify the WTO of the intention to start negotiations on the accession of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan as a common customs territory to the World Trade Organisation. The Customs Union Commission was instructed to initiate the process.
The key step toward creating a common customs territory was taken at the meeting of the Interstate Council at the level of the heads of state in Minsk, Belarus, on November 27, 2009. They approved the decision to organise the Customs Union by January 1, 2010.
The leaders of the three states also signed a Treaty on the Customs Code of the Customs Union and coordinated an action plan for enforcing the Customs Code. They approved the Common Customs Tariff of the Customs Union (to become effective on January 1, 2010, with the authority to establish it granted to the Customs Union Commission), the Common Foreign Economic Activity Commodity Nomenclature, and other international documents necessary for common customs tariff regulation. The heads of state also decided that the common customs territory of the Customs Union would become operational on July 1, 2010.
Upon the proposal of Kazakhstan, the procedures of customs registration on the Russian-Kazakh border will be transferred to the external border of Kazakhstan on July 1, 2010, one year ahead of the planned deadline of July 1, 2011. Members of the Customs Union also approved the Regulations on the Export Council, a consultative agency using pseudo-judicial procedures to consider claims by economic operators relating to their operation in the Customs Union.
Regarding non-tariff regulation of relations with third countries, the member states have coordinated a Common List of Goods to which import and export bans and limitations may be applied with regard to trade between EurAsEC and other countries, and also Regulations on the application of said limitations on goods from that list.
The Interstate Council has also approved a concept for creating an Integrated Information System for trade between the Customs Union members and their trade with other countries.
The Interstate Council has appointed three members for the Customs Union Commission - Andrei Kobyakov (Belarus), Umirzak Shukeyev (Kazakhstan), and Igor Shuvalov (Russia), which will work on a permanent basis. Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, was appointed Chairman of the Commission.
The Interstate Council has also determined the status of the Commission's binding decisions and its Internet site as the official venue for publishing the decisions and materials of the Customs Union agencies.
The functions of a depositary of international treaties on the establishment of the Customs Union have been turned over from the EurAsEC Integration Committee to the Customs Union Commission.
Taken together, this provided the necessary conditions for creating the Customs Union as an agency aimed at promoting integration in the post-Soviet space in the new economic realities in the EurAsEC member states.
In addition, the participating countries have taken another step toward the next stage of integration following the Customs Union - the creation of a Common Economic Space. Acting at the initiative of Belarus, the three countries have instructed the Customs Union Commission to draft and submit for their consideration by December 20, 2009 an action plan for the creation of a Common Economic Space of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, which should become effective within 12-24 months.
The next meeting of the heads of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on December 18, 2009.
