DUSHANBE, October 5, Asia-Plus — A session of the Interstate Committee of the Eurasian Economic Community that will be held in Dushanbe tomorrow will bring together the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The session is expected to result in signing of a package of documents that will form legal model of creation of the Customs Union. These documents are on creation of a common customs territory, on procedure of joining and seceding from the Customs Union, and on creation of a superior body of the Customs Union.
The EAEC Secretary General Grigory Rapota said the preparation of a legal framework for the customs union is the main goal in the strategic development of the organization in the near future. According to him, the key issue in the strategic development of EAEC today is forming the customs union,” he said. “Creation of the Customs Union is not an easy process, and therefore, a plan of actions for three years will be adopted,” the secretary general said, noting that initially a customs union will consist of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, with other EAEC members joining later.
The customs union envisions no duties or taxes for imports or exports within the organization”s territory.
The EAEC heads of state are also expected to consider issues related to progress of work on draft concept of efficient use of water and energy resources in the Central Asian region and number of other issues. In all, 17 issues are supposed to be considered at the EAEC summit in Dushanbe.
In the meantime, Davlat Nazri, a spokesman for the Tajik MFA, told Asia-Plus that work on formulating the EAEC session’s agenda is still going on.
The CSTO secretary general, the SCO secretary general, the OSCE secretary general as well as representatives from Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine have also been invited to attend the EAEC summit.
The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) was put into motion on October 10 2000 when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed the treaty. EAEC was formally created when the treaty was finally ratified by all five member states in May 2001.
EAEC grew out of the CIS Customs Union. All the members of EAEC are also members of the older Commonwealth of Independent States and the relationship between the two organizations is ambiguous. The members have also all agreed that EAEC should be merged with the Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO). With the revival of EAEC in 2005 there is a possibility for the Common Economic Space agenda to be implemented in its framework with or without the participation of Ukraine. This was confirmed in August 2006
– initially a customs union will consist of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, with other EAEC members joining later.
In May 2002, Moldova and Ukraine were granted observer status within EAEC; however, Ukraine subsequently revealed its desire not to become a full member state. Armenia received observer status in April 2003.
Uzbekistan applied for membership in October 2005 when the process of merging CACO and EAEC began. The organizations joined on January 25, 2006.
