THE CUSTOMS UNION AND THE CES: STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

THE CUSTOMS UNION AND THE CES: STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

21 June, 11:45–13:00

The Customs Union between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, coupled with the Common Economic Space, are acting as catalysts for advancing the integration and consolidation of the post-Soviet economic regions. The Common Economic Space was established with the aim of eliminating the barriers and constraints on transporting goods, services, capital, and individuals, while encouraging competition and the creation of new markets by establishing common requirements and standards. What is the status of the Customs Union and CES as it stands today, and what changes can be expected over the medium term? How might the admission of new members lay the foundation for creating a broad zone of close economic cooperation in Eurasia in the near future?















Key moments

The point of any integration is the state of businesses in the respective countries in which the integration will take place.
Andrei Reus
As we have the right to regulate business and create certain obligations, we should also have a duty to do this in such a way that it minimises the costs for businesses from the perspective of finances, human resources, document flow and so on.
Timur Suleimenov
If we take out the fuel and energy component, which constitutes about 30% of our trade turnover, we can see that the trend of improving trade has grown substantially stronger. This applies to the structure of exports from Kazakhstan, maintaining the positive trend of machinery and equipment exports from Belarus and the continuing growth of supplies of products with high added value from Russia to its partners in the Customs Union.
Andrei Slepnev