Trilateral Alliance: Customs gives approval
04.02.2010 (19:01)
The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia started work on January 1st, 2010 and faced a few puzzles, which are to be solved in a very short time, by July 1st, 2010, when the common Customs Union territory will be created.
Konstantin Chaika, State Secretary and Deputy Head of Russian Federal Customs Service, considers that the basis for this process is the European partners’ experience and the history of negotiations held since early 90-ies of the past century. He spoke about it during the round table held by the Expert Council on Customs Regulation of the State Duma’s Budget and Taxes Committee. Alexander Kogan, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma’s Budget and Taxes Committee, Nariman Kutlubaev, Chairman of the Expert Council on Customs Regulation, and representatives of the federal organizations of business community’s executive power also participated in its work.
Mr Chaika stated that about 20 agreements and decisions regarding changes in the customs legislation of the participating countries were worked out by the Union to be approved in mid-May 2010, tested within a month, and then to be finally adopted on the territory of the Customs Union.
This is just the first implementation stage of what is planned, and the common economic space will be established after that. Among the economic benefits promised by the Union and which Mr. Chaika mentioned, is an association of the manpower resource, which is about 170 million people; the wheat market, which will average in 12% of the worldwide production; and also an expected synergy effect – a 15% increase in GDP by 2015.
Natalia Slyusar, Legal Department Director of the Customs Union Commission, spoke about its hierarchy. She said that the EurAsEC Interstate Council is the supreme body of the Union. Its decisions have an obligatory supranational character and are to be approved at the level of Heads of State and Prime Ministers. The Commission operates under the leadership of Vice Premiers. The Expert Council's decisions are advisory. Its Conciliation Commission includes members of the Council of Experts.
Vladimir Ivin, Head of the Analytical Department of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, spoke about the implementation (in the aspect of the Customs Union) of the Concept to move customs close to the Russian State Border. He also stated that there are no plans to change the current status of the state border between Russia and Kazakhstan, thus all state control procedures will stay as approved before. He said that the status of the state border between Russia and Kazakhstan is not expected to change, and current forms of state control will be implemented here in full. The main reason is the risk of possible drug trafficking from the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which, in its turn, has transparent borders with Kyrgyzstan and China. At the same time, according to V. Ivin, it is very possible that after the 1st of July, 2010, there will not be any checkpoints left between Russia and Belarus.
Marina Lyakisheva, Task Team Leader in the Expert Council on Customs Regulation, analyzed possible problems and concerns which the business community can meet providing customs regulations in the Union. Foreign trade participants have the following expectations: non-tariff procedures in customs clearance should be reduced; foreign trade participants and customs control should be differentiated (facilitating customs clearance for trustworthy participants of foreign trade with permission to accomplish it after the goods are released); paperless technologies in customs clearance should be developed (advance notice of arrivals, electronic declaration and the remote release of goods); and the Common Customs Tariff should be unified completely.
The first formation stage of the Union has shown uncertainty in some questions, such as: What is the order for its documents to be adopted? What is the order for decisions to be made by its Commission? What are the order and time limits they are to be published? What legal status should these decisions have? What will be the mechanism to fix technical mistakes?
After the 1st of January serious problems started with the licensing of some goods, such as: alcoholic beverages, vitamins, electronics and communication equipment and the equipment for cellular communications. The licensing process had a few failures, such as no information about the licensing authority, about order and about terms to obtain licenses. Also, it became uncertain which organization is authorized to register notifications about the devices containing encryption tools, and there is not any information resource which would provide an Internet access to the common Customs Union database.
In the near future there might be difficulties with the certification of high-tech products for compliance with safety requirements. It will be an obstacle for the technical re-equipment of Russia. Intellectual property may be also in danger, because there are differences in the union countries' legal systems, and there are no single mechanisms and control procedures.
The Expert Council proposes to consider the following points in building the Union: to involve more businesses in developing and improving its mechanisms; to obligatory comply with the county's internal procedures when decisions to establish the union are implemented in Russia's legal system; to specify dates when the Union documents are to come into force; to make amendments in the Union Customs Code which would exclude corruption growing in the customs organisations, and to get rid of unnecessary barriers on the way of the civilized foreign trade.
The Council is going to take part in the work to amend the legislative acts of the Russian Federation with respect to the adoption of the Union Customs Code.
Inga Dmitrieva
Print version
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