Eurasian Customs Union

Eurasian Customs Union
An orthographic projection of the world highlighting Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia in green.
Policy of EAEU
Type Customs union
Member states
Establishment 1 January 2010
Area
   Total 20,260,431 km2
7,822,596 sq mi
Population
   2013 estimate 182,519,270[1][2][3][4][5]
   Density 9.01/km2
23.3/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2013 estimate
   Total US$4.064 trillion[6]
   Per capita US$22,267
GDP (nominal) 2013 estimate
   Total $2.407 trillion (excluding Armenia and Kyrgyzstan)[7]
   Per capita US$22,267 (excluding Armenia and Kyrgyzstan)

The Eurasian Customs Union (EACU) is a customs union which consists of all the Member states of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The customs union is a principal task of the Eurasian Economic Community, established in 2000, and now succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union. No customs are levied on goods travelling within the customs union and—unlike a free trade area—members of the customs union impose a common external tariff on all goods entering the union. One of the consequences of the customs union is that the Eurasian Union negotiates as a single entity in international trade deals such as the World Trade Organisation, instead of individual member states negotiating for themselves.

It came into existence on 1 January 2010. Its founding states were Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.[8] On 2 January 2015 it was enlarged to include Armenia. Kyrgyzstan acceded to the EEU on 6 August 2015.[9] The original treaty establishing the Customs Union was terminated by the agreement establishing the Eurasian Economic Union, signed in 2014, which incorporated the Customs Union into the EEU's legal framework.

The member states continued with economic integration and removed all customs borders between each other after July 2011. On 19 November 2011, the member states put together a joint commission on fostering closer economic ties, planning to create a Eurasian Economic Union by 2015.[10][11] On 1 January 2012, the three states formed a single economic space to promote further economic integration.[11][12] The Eurasian Economic Commission is the regulatory agency for the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Community.[11]

The creation of the Eurasian Customs Union was guaranteed by 3 different treaties signed in 1995, 1999 and 2007. The first treaty in 1995 guaranteeing its creation, the second in 1999 guaranteeing its formation, and the third in 2007 announced the establishment of a common customs territory and the formation of the customs union.

Overview

Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia. Passengers from Kazakhstan are no longer subject to customs inspections.

Export

Imports

87.95% of customs import duties come from Russia's budget, 4.7% from Belarus and the remainder from Kazakhstan.[14]

Market access to Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) - CU EAC Approval

*this article has been updated in November 2016*
Nominal World GDP and GDP of Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in 2011.
  European Union: $17.1 trillion (25%)
  United States: $14.8 trillion (22%)
  China: $7.2 trillion (10%)
  Japan: $5.8 trillion (8%)
  Other countries: $22.2 trillion (32%)
  Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan
 and Russia: $2.1 trillion (3%)

Access of products to the single territory of the Eurasian Economic Union - EAEU (Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan) - formerly Customs Union is granted after products have proved to be compliant with the requirements of Customs Union Technical Regulations which are applicable to the product. As of September 2016, 36 Customs Union Technical Regulations have been developed covering different types of products. Some Technical Regulations are being still developed. Here you can see the list of developed CU TRs.


There are two types of conformity assessment procedures - Certification (CoC) and Declaration (DoC). List of products which are subject to Certification and Declaration is provided in the relevant CU Technical Regulations. The customer can always choose to order CU Certificate instead of CU Declaration.

For Declaration of Conformity the Applicant must be a local entity registered at the territory of a EAEU Member Country. The range of Applicants for Certification is defined in the relevant Technical Regulations (e.g. for CU TR 004/2011 Safety of low voltage equipment and CU TR 020/2011 Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) the Applicant can be either a Manufacturer including a Foreign Manufacturer of local EAEU entity).

All conformity assessment works (testing/inspection/certification) can only be done by local Certification Bodies/Testing Laboratories accredited in the EAEU Member countries by their National Accrediting Authorities. However where the EAEU countries are Members of International Organizations (such as IECEE), competent national Certification Bodies in EAEU accredited in the same International Organizations (if we speak about IECEE, the list of EAEU Certification Bodies accredited in IECEE you can check via the following link) have the legal right to recognize the works results of the National Certification Bodies from the other Member countries of these International Organizations.

For products which successfully passed the CU EAC conformity assessment procedure - a CU EAC Certificate is issued (see example of CU EAC Certificate) . All Certificates/Declarations are officially registered (by the Certification Bodies) in the Registers for CU EAC Certificates/Declarations maintained by each Member Country. The term of validity is defined in the Certificate (it can be up to 5 years). For series manufacturing Certificates -there's mandatory annual surveillance procedure (performed via sample test or factory inspection).

Products complying with all applicable CU Technical Regulations shall be marked with mandatory EAC Mark.


The EAEU Member countries managed to agree on unification of requirments for most of categories of products/services (that is CU Technical Regulations). However:

a) There are areas where national requirements are valid in each member country. E.g. for RF (radiotelecommunication) appliances/modules. It is not currently planned to develop unified requirements in the EAEU for this type of products, but things may change someday. As of today, it is not expected that unified requirements in EAEU for radio-telecom appliances/modules would appear earlier than the year 2020.

b) Due to uneasy process of development of Technical Regulation System in EAEU, the national member countries are starting to implement national requirements in the areas strategically important for these countries in the absence of proper quality unified EAEU Technical Regulations. e.g. Belarus introduces mandatory national energy efficiency requirements for electrical products on its territory from 01.02.2017.


Before Technical Regulations came into force, the following approvals were the basis for access to the Eurasian Economic Union (Customs Union) Member Countries:

The growth rate of the total turnover of foreign and mutual trade of the Customs Union (growth of the quarter compared to the corresponding period of the previous year). The Common Customs Code was established on July 1, 2010 (blue vertical line). Data source: Eurasian Economic Commission, Department of Statistics[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Opinion polling

Beginning in 2012, the Eurasian Development Bank (established by Russia and Kazakhstan) conducts regular opinion polling of selected states with regards to Eurasian integration projects. The following question was asked to the residents of the selected countries, translated from Russian to their native language:

The results for the sum of answers "Favorably" and "Very favorably" are below:[22][23][24]

Country 2012 2013 2014
 Russia 72% 67% 79%
 Belarus 60% 65% 68%
 Kazakhstan 80% 73% 84%
 Armenia 61% 67% 64%
 Kyrgyzstan 67% 72% 50%
 Azerbaijan 38% 37% 22%
 Moldova 65% 54% 49%
 Tajikistan 76% 75% 72%
 Uzbekistan 67% 77% 68%
 Ukraine 57% 50% 31%
 Turkmenistan No data 50% No data
 Georgia 30% 59% 53%

Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia are current members of the Customs Union, noted in blue. Georgia is a non-CIS member state which participated in polling, noted in red. Turkmenistan opted out of polling in 2012 and 2014, but participated in 2013.

According to opinion polls by Razumkov Centre and Sociological group "RATING" Eurasian Customs Union membership in Ukraine was favoured by 22% (Razumkov Centre in June 2014) and 17% ("RATING" in November 2014).[25][26] A February 2015 opinion poll by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology stated that 12% of the polled (Ukrainians) supported joining the Eurasian Customs Union.[27]

Criticism

The United States opposes the Customs Union, claiming it as an attempt to "reestablish a Russian-dominated USSR-type union among the Post-Soviet states".[28]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurasian Economic Community.

References

  1. http://www.gks.ru/bgd/free/B14_00/IssWWW.exe/Stg//%3Cextid%3E/%3Cstoragepath%3E::%7Cdk11/8-0.doc
  2. "The World Factbook".
  3. http://belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/otrasli-statistiki/naselenie/demografiya_2/operativnaya-informatsiya_1/o-demograficheskoi-situatsii-v-yanvare-sentyabre-2014-g/
  4. http://www.armstat.am/file/doc/99475033.pdf
  5. http://www.stat.kg/stat.files/din.files/census/Excel/5010003.XLS
  6. "Country Comparision:GDP at Purchasing Power Parity". Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  7. "Country Comparison: GDP at Official Exchange Rate". Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  8. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan Agree on Customs Union Saturday, 5 December 2009
  9. Kyrgyzstan and Armenia will officially enter the Eurasian Customs Union that was created by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, on the January 1, 2015., Kyrgyzstan, Armenia officially enter Eurasian Economic Union, 24.kg. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  10. "Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan sign pact". UPI. 19 November 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
  11. 1 2 3 Ukraine cannot get observer status at Eurasian Econ Union due to Association Agreement with EU, Russia, Interfax-Ukraine (14 June 2013)
  12. Barron, Lisa (1 October 2013). "Belarus eases current account deficit with Customs Union, Common Economic Space". Cistran Finance. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  13. "Доклад «Итоги деятельности Минэкономразвития России в 2009 году и задачи на 2010 год»" (PDF). 23 April 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 20, 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  14. "Белоруссия может выйти из ТС, если Россия не отменит пошлины на нефтепродукты". Archived from the original on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  15. "Статистика внешней торговли и статистика взаимной торговли". Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики. Archived from the original on 2013-08-29.
  16. Объемы, темпы и пропорции развития взаимной торговли государств — членов ТС и ЕЭП (pdf) (in Russian). Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики.
  17. Объемы, темпы и пропорции развития взаимной торговли государств — членов ТС и ЕЭП (pdf) (in Russian). Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики.
  18. Объем внешней торговли Таможенного союза (pdf) (in Russian). Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики.
  19. Итоги внешней торговли Таможенного союза со всеми странами (pdf) (in Russian). Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики.
  20. Итоги внешней торговли Таможенного союза со всеми странами (pdf) (in Russian). Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики.
  21. Итоги внешней торговли Таможенного союза со всеми странами (pdf) (in Russian). Евразийская экономическая комиссия, Департамент статистики.
  22. "Интеграционный барометр ЕАБР 2012". Центр интеграционных исследований Евразийского банка развития. 13 September 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  23. "Интеграционный барометр ЕАБР 2013" (PDF). Центр интеграционных исследований Евразийского банка развития. 13 September 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  24. "Интеграционный барометр ЕАБР 2014" (PDF). Центр интеграционных исследований Евразийского банка развития. September 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  25. http://censor.net.ua/news/291636/bolee_60_ukraintsev_gotovy_podderjat_vstuplenie_v_evrosoyuz_i_svyshe_40_v_nato_opros
  26. Assessment of the situation in the East. Foreign policy orientations of the population, Rating (2014/11/20)
  27. Support for joining EU rises one year after Revolution of Dignity – poll, Interfax-Ukraine (19 March 2015)
  28. Failed reset?: United States decries “sovietization” of former USSR states
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