DUSHANBE, September 17, 2010, Asia-Plus — The CIS nations may sign a treaty on a free trade zone within the next few months.
According to the CIS Executive Committee press service, Russian Minister for Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina noted that at the CIS economy minister’s meeting in Moscow yesterday. According to her, the session highlighted the interest of all the parities in prompting the process of drafting the treaty. She stressed that the agreement was of great importance for further development of mutually beneficial cooperation within the CIS area.
The Russian minister noted that the treaty could lay the foundation for full-scale liberalization of trade within the CIS area that would meet modern requirements and remove unfounded obstacles in the way of development of mutual trade.
The major provisions of the draft treaty are based on the WTO regulations. The document also envisages the application of rules for determining the country of origin of goods, free transit, re-export, special safeguard, antidumping and countervailing measures, provision of subsidies, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs control, dispute settlement rules and other aspects of trading relations.
The current CIS free trade zone is formalized by the agreement on a free trade zone of 15 April 1994, its protocol of 2 April 1999 and numerous bilateral agreements of 1992-1993.
In the meantime, the CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev told reporters in Moscow yesterday that the CIS states may sign an agreement on a free trade zone in May 2011, BelTA reports. According to him, the final consideration of the agreement will be held by the CIS Economic Council in March.
We will recall that the countries making up the Customs Union, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, as well as Tajikistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Ukraine plan to conclude a common treaty on free trade implying the annulment of import duties.
