Customs Union heads of government to meet in Minsk 15 March

MOSCOW. March 3. KAZINFORM The heads of governments of the Customs Union participating countries of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia will meet in Minsk on 15 March, spokesman for the executive secretary of the Customs Union Commission Alexander Korsunov told BelTA following a session of the Customs Union Commission in Moscow on 2 March. The Moscow session approved the draft agenda for the upcoming meeting in Minsk.

According to BelTA, the Belarusian delegation at the session of the Customs Union Commission was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Rumas.

The heads of government of the three countries will discuss issues related to the formation of the Single Economic Space, the redeployment of vehicle control from the Belarusian-Russian border to the external border of the Customs Union, the redeployment of control from the Russian-Kazakh border to the external border of the Customs Union, the improvement of activities of the supranational bodies, including the Customs Union Commission.

The agenda of the Minsk session includes issues relating to the formation of the EurAsEC Court, unified approach to migration and visa policy towards third countries, accession the Customs Union member states to the WTO, approaches to the codification of laws of the Customs Union and Single Economic Space, including suggestions regarding the implementation of the Declaration on the Single Economic Space of the three countries of 9 December 2010.

During the meeting, the Customs Union Commission reviewed the drafts of several international agreements: the agreement on the transport controls at the external border of the Customs Union, agreement on the application of the Customs Convention on the International Carriage of Goods in the customs territory of the Customs Union, protocol on the amendments to the agreement on the application of special protective, antidumping and countervailing measures against third countries of 25 January 2008.

The meeting heard the reports on the progress made in implementing the Plan of Action to the Single Economic Space, discussed issues of customs and tariff and non-tariff regulations and adopted decisions to adjust the rates of import customs duties on a number of items: iron chains, certain types of vegetables and other food products.

The members of the Commission took decisions on the commodity nomenclature of foreign trade activities in respect of the classification of certain goods, and on a number of issues of customs regulations. In addition, the Commission approved the draft strategy of the integrated system of technical regulation, the application of sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary measures in the Customs Union for 2011-2015, amendments and additions to certain regulations of the Customs Union Commission regarding application of sanitary and veterinary measures.

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