Customs Union meets in Moscow

Moscow, October 21, 2009 (Khabar) - The city of Moscow was the venue for the 10th regular meeting of the Customs Union featuring deputy prime ministers from all three member-states including Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. The sitting was topped by issues of the customs code, common customs and tariff regulations as well as the general issues regarding the Customs Union commission’s activity. Participants in the meeting also noted that border control at the Russian-Belarus and Kazakhstan-Russian border will be cancelled on July 1, 2010 and July 1, 2011 respectively with all border control features to be moved to the customs union borders. On the outcome of the sitting, the parties approved the final version of the single customs code which will be passed to the head of states for signing on the 27th of November in Minsk. On the same day, the Presidents are expected to approve the single customs tariff and the list of goods to be banned from both export and import with third party countries.

Umirzak Shukeyev, first deputy prime minister of RK:
- During inter-state negotiations, we all proposed a total of 300 new proposals. We have scrutinized all of them and we can state that there are no controversies present. We have also discussed the issues of single customs tariffs as well as the issues of preferential periods which have been coordinated. We can also say that all single customs tariffs have been coordinated completely and are ready to be signed by the heads of states.

Igor Shuvalov, first deputy prime minister of Russia:
- At the beginning of next year, we are planning to amend our tariff plan to make our key trade partners ready for negotiations regarding separate positions.