Russia to reduce import duties to match Kazakhstan’s WTO pledges
2013-03-05 17:26:07
Russia will have to cut some import tariffs nearer levels accepted by its customs union partner Kazakhstan in World Trade Organization accession talks, said Eurasian Economic Commission Trade Minister Andrey Slepnev, reported Bloomberg.
Kazakhstan, which has been negotiating to join the WTO since February 1996, has already agreed to cut duties on some goods to levels lower than Russia accepted during its accession process, Slepnev said in an interview in Geneva and confirmed by e-mail today. Russia became the global trade arbiter’s 156th member in August.
“We suggested a formula which allowed to adjust the level of the common tariff on the goods in accordance with the share of markets of these goods,” said Slepnev, a former Russian deputy economy minister. “It’s a fair deal, and it’s a case when Russia will provide some concessions to WTO members.”
The customs union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus was set up as a first step toward forming a broader economic alliance of former Soviet states modeled after the European Union. The three members, which have scrapped customs borders between each other and introduced a single economic space, are working to foster closer ties and plan to create the Eurasian Union, which won’t be formed before 2015. Kyrgyzstan wants to enter the customs union, whose annual trade amounted to $939 billion last year, and Russia is pushing for Ukraine to join.