Countries of the Customs Union: list

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

In the modern world, many countries unite in unions - political, economic, religious and others. One of the largest such unions was the Soviet one. Now we are seeing the emergence of the European, Eurasian, and Customs Unions.

The customs union was positioned as a form of trade and economic integration of a number of countries, which provides not only a common customs territory for mutually beneficial trade with no duties, etc., but also a number of points regulating trade with third countries. This agreement was signed on 06.10.2007 in Dushanbe, at the time of its conclusion, the union included the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

The first article of the agreement on the movement of goods within this territory says the following:

• Customs duty is not charged. And not only for goods of own production, but also for cargo from third countries.
• There are no economic restrictions, except compensatory, anti-dumping ones.
• The countries of the Customs Union apply a single customs tariff.

Current countries and candidates

Exist as permanent member countries of the CustomsUnion, who were its founders or joined later, and those who only expressed a desire to join.

Members:

• Armenia;
• Kazakhstan;
• Kyrgyzstan;
• Russia;
• Belarus.

Membership Candidates:

• Tunisia;
• Syria;
• Tajikistan.

TS leaders

There was a special commission of the Customs Union, which was approved at the time of signing the agreement on the Customs Union. Its rules were the basis of the legal activities of the organization. The structure worked and remained within this legal framework until July 1, 2012, that is, until the creation of the EEC. The supreme body of the union at that time was a group of representatives of the heads of state (Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian Federation), Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev (Republic of Kazakhstan) and Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (Republic of Belarus)).

Prime ministers were represented at the level of heads of government:

• Russia – Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev;
• Kazakhstan - Karim Kazhimkanovich Massimov;
• Belarus – Sergei Sergeevich Sidorsky.

Goal of the Customs Union

The countries of the Customs Union, under the main goal of creating a single regulatory body, meant the formation of a common territory, which will include several states, and all duties on products are canceled on their territory.

The second goal was to protect our owninterests and markets, in the first place - from harmful, low-quality, as well as competitive products, which makes it possible to smooth out all the shortcomings in the trade and economic sphere. This is very important, since the protection of the interests of their own states, taking into account the opinions of the members of the union, is a priority for any country.

Benefits and prospects

First of all, the benefit is obvious for those enterprises that can easily make purchases in neighboring countries. Most likely, it will be only large corporations and companies. As for the prospects for the future, contrary to some forecasts of economists that the Customs Union will lead to lower wages in the participating countries, at the official level, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan announced an increase in wages in the state in 2015.

That is why the world experience of such large economic formations cannot be attributed to this case. The countries that have entered the Customs Union are expecting a steady, if not rapid, growth of economic ties.

Agreement

The final version of the Agreement on the Customs Code of the Customs Union was adopted only at the tenth meeting, 26.10.2009. This pact spoke about the creation of special groups that would monitor the activities for the entry into force of the revised draft treaty.

Countries of the Customs Union had until 2010-01-07 to amend their legislation to eliminate contradictions between this Code and the Constitution. Thus, another contact group was created to resolve issues related to differencesbetween national legal systems.

Also, all the nuances related to the territories of the Customs Union have been improved.

Territory of the Customs Union

The countries of the Customs Union have a common customs territory, which is determined by the boundaries of the states that have concluded the agreement and are members of the organization. The Customs Code, among other things, determines the expiration date of the commission, which came on July 1, 2012. Thus, a more serious organization was created, which has much more powers and, accordingly, more people in its staff in order to fully control all processes. On January 1, 2012, the Eurasian Economic Commission (EAEU) officially began its work.

EAEU

The Eurasian Economic Union includes the member countries of the Customs Union: the founders - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan - and the recently joined states, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

The establishment of the EAEU implies a wider range of relationships in the freedom of movement of labor, capital, services and goods. Also, a coordinated economic policy of all countries should be constantly pursued, a transition to a single customs tariff should be carried out.

The total budget of this union is formed exclusively in Russian rubles, thanks to share contributions made by all member countries of the Customs Union. Their size is regulated by the supreme council, which consists of the heads of thesestates.

Russian has become the working language for the regulations of all documents, and the headquarters will be located in Moscow. The financial regulator of the EAEU is in Almaty, and the court is in the capital of Belarus, Minsk.

Bodies of the Union

The highest regulatory body is considered to be the Supreme Council, which includes the Heads of States Parties.

Next comes the intergovernmental council. It consists of prime ministers whose main task is to address the strategically important issues of economic integration.

A judiciary has also been created, which is responsible for the application of treaties within the Union.

The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) is a regulatory body that ensures all the conditions for the development and functioning of the Union, as well as the development of new proposals in the economic sphere regarding the format of the EAEU. It consists of the Ministers of the Commission (Deputy Prime Ministers of the member states of the Union) and the Chairman.

Main provisions of the Treaty on the EAEU

Of course, compared to the CU, the EAEU has not only broader powers, but also a much more extensive and specific list of planned work. This document no longer has any general plans, and for each specific task, the path for its implementation has been determined and a special working group has been created that will not only monitor the implementation, but also control its entire course.

In the received agreement, the countries of the single Customs Union, and now the EAEU, secured an agreement on coordinated work and the creation of commonenergy markets. The work on energy policy is quite large-scale and will be implemented in several stages until 2025.

Regulated in the document and the creation of a common market for medical devices and medicines by January 1, 2016.

Great importance is given to transport policy on the territory of the EAEU states, without which it will not be possible to create any joint action plan. The development of a coordinated agro-industrial policy is envisaged, which includes the mandatory formation of veterinary and phytosanitary measures.

Agreed macroeconomic policy provides an opportunity to translate into reality all the plans and agreements. Under such conditions, general principles of interaction are developed and the effective development of countries is ensured.

A special place is occupied by the common labor market, which regulates not only the free movement of labor, but also the same working conditions. Citizens who go to work in the EAEU countries will no longer need to fill out migration cards (if their stay does not exceed 30 days). The same simplified system will apply to medical care. The issue of exporting pensions and offsetting the length of service that has been accumulated in a member state of the Union is also being resolved.

Expert opinions

The list of countries of the Customs Union in the near future may be replenished with several more states, but, according to experts, in order to be noticeable full growth and influence on Western similar unions like the EU (EuropeanUnion), a lot of work and expansion of the organization is needed. In any case, the ruble will not be able to become an alternative to the euro or the dollar for a long time, and the impact of recent sanctions has clearly shown how Western politics can work to please their interests, and that neither Russia nor the whole Union can actually do anything about it.. As for Kazakhstan and Belarus specifically, the conflict in Ukraine has shown that they will not give up their benefits in favor of Russia. Tenge, by the way, also fell sharply due to the fall of the ruble. And on many issues, Russia remains the main competitor of Kazakhstan and Belarus. However, at the moment, the creation of the Union is an adequate and only right decision that can help somehow strengthen relations between states in the event of further pressure from the West on Russia.

Now we know which countries in the Customs Union are more interested in its creation. Despite the fact that even at the stage of its inception it was constantly haunted by all sorts of problems, joint coordinated actions of all members of the Union make it possible to solve them as quickly as possible, which makes it possible to look to the future with optimism and hope for the rapid development of the economies of all states participating in this agreement.