Tajik Ambassador to Belarus, Mr. Qozidavlat Qoimdodov, considers that Tajikistan needs time to thoroughly study the issue of joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
“Tajikistan needs time to solve this uneasy issue. For example, the process of negotiations on joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) lasted for eleven years,” Ambassador Qoimdodov told Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA in an interview.
According to him, the issue of Tajikistan’s entry into the EAEU is at the stage of study.
“Countries certainly should join together, but they need to do this bearing in mind their own interests. It is wrong to join unions blindly, without much thought. Tajikistan and Belarus are members of certain economic and political blocs,” Tajik diplomat stressed.
“There ought to weigh all the pluses and the minuses of our possible entry into this integration union,” Qoimdodov said.
At the same time, he noted that the EAEU member nations were major trading partners of Tajikistan.
“International practice shows that to enter such unions a country needs to have a reliable economic basis or a safety cushion for the transition period. If today we lift all the customs duties that make a certain contribution to the budget, then where from will we get this money tomorrow? All the countries that showed interest in joining the union in question had such a safety cushion,” Qozidavlat Qoimdodov said.
He pointed out that specialists should think how to harmonize tariffs. “Groups of experts are working on this. However, we should take into account the factor of the global crisis and various sanctions,” Qoimdodov added.
The Tajik government is reportedly considering making an application to enter the Eurasian Economic Union.
Abdufattoh Ghoib, the head of Tajikistan's Customs Service, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 19 that they’d been studying the issue of entry and the working group has prepared all necessary materials and submitted them for consideration to the government.
Ghoib's declaration followed an announcement from Leonid Slutsky, the Russian State Duma member overseeing Eurasian integration.
Earlier in July, Leonid Slutsky said that Tajikistan would likely apply for EAEU membership within the next year.
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. It participated in the EAEU from the day of its establishment as an acceding state.
