Belarus and Russia work over unification of backing principles in industry and agriculture

Belarus and Russia continue to work over the agreement on common backing principles in industry and agriculture. That was said by the deputy Minister of economy of Belarus Andrei Tur at the Republican assembly of business people where the topic “There is no other way out of the crisis but through business development!”

Belarus and Russia continue to work over the agreement on common backing principles in industry and agriculture. That was said by the deputy Minister of economy of Belarus Andrei Tur at the Republican assembly of business people where the topic “There is no other way out of the crisis but through business development!”

In particular, Andrei Tur said that currently everything is in process, negotiations are being held and he believes that agreement will be reached.

Deputy Minister reminded that earlier Russian and Belarusian sides have already held a number of meetings covering this problem where they expressed their attitudes towards it. Andrei Tur pointed out that at the last meeting that took place in Minsk there was a certain progress related to the fact that agreements must be reached on the basis of common WTO principles.

“However we agreed that we won’t consider agreement on subsidies taking into account all the positions related to WTO. We will just create our own legal basis on granting subsidies within the scopes of Union State”, - underlined deputy Minister.

Making comments on the current state of negotiation process, Andrei Tur pointed out that while developing the agreement on common backing principles Belarusian and Russian ides have some disagreements on a matter of principles. “Relying on the WTO principles Russian Federation suggests granting agriculture subsidies to 5% of GDP. Why do we need that? Why do we have to limit ourselves and to state such a figure in the agreement? It is completely irrational, - said Andrei Tur. – As far as industry subsidies are concerned, here we argue about what we should consider as prohibited subsidies”.