Andrei Petrosyan, the head of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Center for Integration Studies, considers that admission to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will have a positive effect for Tajikistan.
According to him, one of the main factors for Tajikistan to join the EAEU is the common labor market. “Tajik labor migrants will join the common labor market and remittance flows will increase again,” Petrosyan noted in Moscow on November 22 at the 13th annual conference on Eurasian economic integration.
Petrosyan considers that Tajikistan does not hurry to join the EAEU because it evaluates pros and cons of participation in the integration process.
According to estimates of the Eurasian Development Bank, wages of Tajik labor migrants will increase 9-28 percent after Tajikistan’s admission to the Eurasian Economic Union.
The Tajik government has been considering the issue of joining the Eurasian Economic Union since 2015.
Established in 2011, the EDB Center for Integration Studies is a compact and efficient think tank within the EDB, which provides information and analytical support for Eurasian integration processes.
Recall, the head of the Customs Service of Tajikistan announced in July 2016 that an expert committee had completed its study of Tajikistan’s potential EAEU accession. The results, however, have not been made public
Meanwhile, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB)’s Integration Barometer-2017 noted in December 2017 that interest of citizens of Tajikistan in Tajikistan’s potential EEU (Eurasian Economic Union) accession had decreased.
In 2012, 76 percent of those surveyed in Tajikistan reportedly declared for Tajikistan’s potential EEU accession. In 2017, 69 percent of those surveyed in Tajikistan declared for Tajikistan’s joining the Eurasian Economic Union, according to Integration Barometer-2017.
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an economic union of states located primarily in northern Eurasia. A treaty aiming for the establishment of the EAEU was signed on May 29, 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on January 1, 2015. Treaties aiming for Armenia's and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on October 9 and December 23, 2014, respectively. Armenia's accession treaty came into force on January 2, 2015. Kyrgyzstan's accession treaty came into effect on August 6, 2015.
The Eurasian Economic Union has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over 4 trillion U.S. dollars (PPP). The EEU introduces the free movement of goods, capital, services and people and provides for common transport, agriculture and energy policies, with provisions for a single currency and greater integration in the future. The union operates through supranational and intergovernmental institutions. The Supreme Eurasian Economic Council is the “Supreme Body” of the Union, consisting of the Heads of the Member States. The other supranational institutions are the Eurasian Commission (the executive body), the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council (consisting of the Prime Ministers of member states) and the Court of the EEU (the judicial body).
