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Premiers Unable to Pass Customs
Past Friday, prime ministers of six member states of Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) agreed in Moscow to create the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus by January 1, 2007. But even the premiers of the leading trio showed the initiative could be hardly viewed as viable.
It was Kazakh Premier Daniil Akhmetov that suggested creating the Customs Union at the Moscow meeting of EurAsEC prime ministers. Russia’s PM Mikhail Fradkov promptly backed up the idea, saying “the whole next year could become the year of putting in force a new Customs Union.”
In the end, the premiers decided to set up the Customs Union by New Year with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus as the first members and Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan as observers. Fradkov even proposed to integrate Ukraine into the new body, though the latter has been endeavoring to avoid all integration until recently.
But all estimates for the efficiency of this Union would be at least premature, even judging by requirement of Belarus PM Sergey Sidorsky, who stands ready to joint it. Sidorsky conditioned emergence of the new body to applying common rules to subsidize national economies, ensuring equal access to natural monopolies and no-discriminatory pricing. Otherwise, creation of the Customs Union makes no sense, Sidorsky specified.
The purpose of Belarus’ PM is clear – bargaining on gas price that Gazprom intends to hike to $200/ths cu meters next year. So, more likely than not, the destiny of the Customs Union of EuroAsEC would repeat the destiny of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan, which emerged in 1999 but has existed only nominally so far.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 30, 2006
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