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EurAsEC Returns to Customs Union
The interstate council of the Eurasian Economic Community met on January 25 in Moscow. Normative documents for the establishment of a customs union were considered and the prime ministers of three of the six member states signed nine documents. Prime Ministers Viktor Zubkov of Russia, Kerim Masimov of Kazakhstan and Viktor Sidorsky of Belarus was the signatories, while Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan remain observers of the process. The plan for the creation of the customs union was approved by the presidents of the signatory countries last year in Dushanbe.
The first document signed was on customs tariff regulation. It foresees that union participants will meet no less often than quarterly to form unified customs duties. The union is to be operational by 2010.
The first attempt to form a customs union in the former USSR was made in 1995. At that time, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan participated along with the three current member states. An agreement came close to approval the following year, although the parliaments of most of the member states declined to approve it. After a union was finally formed, disagreements forced participants to transform the organization into the EurAsEC in 2000. Uzbekistan joined it at that time.
Although some of the documents signed on Friday were drafted in the 1990s, full agreement has still not been reached. Currency policy, investment protection and electricity and transport rates are among issues remaining to be resolved.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 28, 2008
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