Azerbaijan, Baku, July 16 / Trend A. Akhundov /
Azerbaijan does not intend joining the Eurasian Customs Union, head of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev said at a meeting with the Minister for Customs Cooperation of the Eurasian Economic Committee Vladimir Goshin on Saturday.
The meeting took place within the 119/120 sessions of the Customs Cooperation Council and the Global Excise Summit, held at the headquarters of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) in Brussels in late June - early July, the State Customs Committee said on Saturday.
Goshin informed the Azerbaijani delegation about the Customs Union and the relevant legislation. At the meeting, the Azerbaijani side voiced its decision not to join the organisation. It plans to implement its own new Customs Code in the country, the report said.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov stressed Uzbekistan's reluctance to join the Customs Union and other international associations in late 2011, as it has not been ruled out that they will go beyond economic interests and become political.
The Eurasian customs union is a form of trade and economic integration of the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation which ensures a single customs territory.
Customs duties and restrictions of economic nature are not used in the mutual trade of goods with the exception of special protective, antidumping and countervailing measures within this territory. The member countries of the customs union apply a unified customs tariff and other common measures to regulate trade in goods with third countries.
The Customs Union of the three countries began operating in January 2012. Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Syria, Vietnam, New Zealand have expressed a desire on making accession to the Customs Union.
Azerbaijan, along with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, did not join the new Treaty on the Free Trade Area, signed on October 18, 2011 by the heads of governments of eight Commonwealth member-states.