Kyrgyzstan may join Customs Union a head of schedule

The process of Kyrgyzstan�s joining the Customs Union may take a rapid pace, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev said following the meeting with the President of Kyrguzstan Almazbek Atambaev, who is currently in Astana with a first official visit.

N. Nazarbaev underlined that Kazakhstan strongly supports Kyrgyzstan�s accession to the CU and Common Economic Space.
Mr.Nazarbayev promised that Kazakh experts will assist in the preparation of documents, because Kyrgyzstan will have to adopt about 60 agreements and to ratify them in Parliament.
�This takes time, and since we have already prepared such documents, Kyrgyzstan can pass this process at a faster pace�, N. Nazarbaev said.

At the same time he noted that Kyrgyzstan should bring its macroeconomic indicators to the level of the Customs Union countries, and Kazakhstan will also help Kyrgyzstan in this.

Three members of the EurAsEC – Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – have formed Customs Union (CU), which implies removal of duties and restrictions in mutual trade, as well as harmonization of rules of trade with third countries. Starting January 1, 2012, CU countries have created a Common Economic Space (CES), which is actually a uniform market with free movement of goods, services, capital and labor, harmonizied legal norms, common fiscal, monetary, trade and customs policy.
To guide the integration process within CU and CES the members have formed Eurasian Economic Commission – an international organization which is similar to European Commission (supranational executive authority of the European Union) Eurasian Commission is located in Moscow and headed by Viktor Khristenko, who previously served as the Minister of Industry and Trade.

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan welcome other countries accession to the Union, including EurAsEc countries (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), however provided that they are ready to align their economies to meet the CU legal norms.

Source: http://thenews.kz/2012/05/10/1092057.html
Translated by: usapeec.kz

Date: 11 May 2012