Here is our short comment about the customs union that we recently launched with Kazakhstan and Russia to ‘lift the lid’ on the benefits we expect from it in response to a few inquiries from our website visitors.

The customs union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is a culmination of more than 10 years of our meticulous work to encourage closer economic integration within the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) of which the three nations are members, along with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

In a nutshell, the customs union will deliver by cutting off barriers in our mutual trade, speeding up the flow of goods over eliminated control on our internal borders and bringing larger coherence in our trade policies with other nations.

We hope to boost our mutual trade and attract more investments from abroad as now we are a gateway to the combined market of 170 million people.

Meanwhile, the customs union is not our final destination as we intend to launch the common economic space among the three nations starting from 1 January 2012. A much higher level of integration, it will perform by agreed economic policies, including subsidiaries, and free movement of labour, money, goods and services.