Khristenko: The Common Economic Space de facto uses the WTO rules

The Common Economic Space of Belarus , Kazakhstan and Russia de facto works in conformity with the norms of the World Trade Organization. The statement was made by Chairman of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Viktor Khristenko at the plenary session of the Gaidar Forum in Moscow.

The Common Economic Space of Belarus , Kazakhstan and Russia de facto works in conformity with the norms of the World Trade Organization. The statement was made by Chairman of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Viktor Khristenko at the plenary session of the Gaidar Forum in Moscow. The plenary session was dedicated to the challenges of global competition, BelTA learned from the press service of the EEC.

According to Viktor Khristenko, the regulatory and legal framework of the Common Economic Space is based on the WTO norms and rules. He mentioned that Russia’s norms, rules, procedures and obligations within the framework of the WTO are applied to the other Customs Union member states. “In spite of the fact that de jure not all the CES members are WTO members, de facto all the norms that the Eurasian Economic Commission adopts are based on similar WTO norms and procedures,” the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission explained. “In my opinion, it is a benefit for foreign trade participants and investors who want market rules of conduct to conform to the common, acceptable and time proved procedures”.

“The integration process is not just gathering pace, it really shows its effectiveness. Researches done by such institutions as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development prove out this fact. The bank considers our project to be the most successful regional integration project in 2012,” Viktor Khristenko said.

From 1 January, 2012 Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan have started to create the CES on the basis of 17 basic agreements. “ We will have to accomplish a large amount of work within two years. We will have to adopt about 60 documents to expand these agreements in such important fields as macroeconomics, financial and monetary policy, industrial policy, agricultural policy, trade policy, transport policy and energy policy,” Viktor Khristenko said.

The Chairman of the Board of the EEC said the leaders of the three countries set a task to launch the Eurasian Economic Union on January 1, 2015. “It’s an ambitious target. The main actions will be related to the reshuffling of competence between national and supranational bureaucracies,” Viktor Khristenko said.

He said that transfer of competence to the supranational level would help to advance the reformation of the regulatory field because the best practices of global and supranational institutions had been taken as the basis of the regulatory framework of the Customs Union, the Common Economic Space and the future Eurasian Economic Union.

“Not only the success of the integration project but also the effectiveness of the regulatory environment in the Eurasian space on the whole depends on how we will take this opportunity and on the political will that should be supported by the legal framework,” Viktor Khristenko said.