The issue of joining the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia (CU) is subject to hot debates in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan as the member of WTO benefited from re-export of Chinese goods mainly to Kazakhstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan due to its membership in EURASEC. The establishment of the Customs Union led to serious changes in trade relations among EURASEC countries. The re-exports from Kyrgyzstan become the topic of the discussions on the high-level meetings of the Customs Union officials and as the result Russian customs officers will be involved in customs control procedures on borders between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Another major challenge for Kyrgyzstan is the increase in tariffs for Russian oil and oil products exports which are employed by Moscow for greater bargaining power in the Customs Union negotiations. Although most of the western oriented media coverage of the Kyrgyzstan’s dilemma in joining the Customs Union presents this issue as the Moscow attempt to gain more influence, there are some economic aspects that should be considered first.
Read more: Joining the Customs Union: The Dilemma of Kyrgyzstan
The euphoria of independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union destroyed economic relations between countries that shared before common market. Each independent country faced many difficulties in development their economies. The first step for economic integration was made in 1994 when Free Trade Zone Agreement was signed by 12 CIS countries (History of EurAsEC, n.d). It shaped basics for integration of the CIS countries economies but due differences in economies and political issues caused that some countries joined the Agreement on temporary basis. The second step was establishment of EurAsEC on October 10, 2000 in Astana by presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan (History of EurAsEC, n.d).
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