Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan to sign Customs Union documents Friday.

26/11 Tass 282

MOSCOW, November 26 (Itar-Tass) - The Presidents of Russia, Belarus
and Kazakhstan -- Dmitry Medvedev, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan
Nazarbayev -- will sign documents on creating the Customs Union of the
three states.
On Friday, Minsk will host a meeting of the supreme body of the
Customs Union at the level of heads of states.

"The leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia will adopt a package of
decisions on launching the Customs Union of three states from January 1,
2010, and completing the necessary procedures by July 1, 2011," a
high-placed Kremlin official told Itar-Tass.
It is planned to sign a treaty on the Customs Code of the Customs
Union, and endorse a plan of actions to put the Customs Code into effect,
according to the official.
The leaders will consider such documents as the single customs tariff
of the Customs Union, a single list of commodities in foreign trade, and a
single list of restricted goods in trade with third countries, as well as
other documents, which make up the legal basis of trade/economic
interaction between the "troika" members.
In all, 15 draft documents have been prepared for consideration by the
heads of state at the session of the supreme body of the Customs Union.
These include the decisions regulating the work of the Customs Union
Commission (KTS).
In the course of their meeting, the leaders have to settle the issues
of the appointment of the KTS chairman, approve its members, and rules of
the KTS procedure, its expenditure in 2010, and changes in the
Commission's Secretariat and the number of its staff.
The incumbent KTS secretary is Sergei Glazyev.
The Kremlin official noted that "the establishment of an effective
mechanism of implementing the Commission's decision at the national level
has a considerable significance."
"This implies the implementation of the Commission's decisions in the
territory of the Union State, the so-called "direct effect of its
decisions," he explained.
The parties are expected to adopt a concept to create an integrated
information system of foreign and mutual trade of the Customs Union.
In the August of 2006, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, were instructed
to draw a package of necessary documents to create a customs union. The
instruction was issued at the informal summit of the Eurasian Economic
Community (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan).
These three countries, with a population of 180 million people,
account for almost 83 percent of the economic potential of the former
USSR, and their unified economies may grow considerable if customs
restrictions are lifted.
The other EurAsEc members will be joining the Customs Union
gradually, depending of their readiness.
On May 19, 2009, Kyrgyzstan applied for Customs Union membership.
The Customs Union is a common customs space with a uniform customs
tariffs. No customs duties or economic restrictions are applied, except
special protection, anti-dumping or compensation measures.
On October 6, 2007, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed an agreement
in Dushanbe on establishing a common customs territory and setting up a
customs union, and approved a plan of actions. They set up a supranational
regulator - the Customs Union Commission - to secure its functioning and
development.
-0-myz/gor