A.Shpilevski: uniform customs tariff of the Customs Union to be passed by April

As is reported by the Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus Alexander Shpilevski, uniform customs tariff within the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan may be passed till April.

As is reported by the Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus Alexander Shpilevski, uniform customs tariff within the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan may be passed till April.

At present, the joint committee is trying to create common customs area. “Adoption of a uniform customs tariff may take place by April 2009. We believe that it is quite feasible to create common customs area for the three countries by January 2010,” stated the head of the department. He also noted that for this reason the need to have the posts of registering notifications at Belarusian-Russian border falls away. There will be no need to issue the certificates for temporary import of cars either.

Speaking about uniform customs tariff Alexander Shpilevski informed that the document has been approved by the Russian Federation almost to 95%. Yet, certain product groups are being negotiated at present. “Both parties try to defend their interests. New rates of customs duties for importing cars were not at issue,” stressed the Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus.

The head of the committee’s legal board Alexander Adereiko reported that customs union can be defined by three components: uniform customs tariff, absence of internal customs boundaries and presence of external ones as well as by common customs area. “Now the three countries are carrying out dynamic rule-making work in order to create legal basis of the Customs Union. There is also a working group which is engaged in preparation of Customs Code of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan,” he added.