Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 16 / Trend , V.Zhavoronkova/
If a project of the Customs Union within the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) will be implemented well, it will increase the investment attractiveness of participant-countries and fruitfully impact on the economic image of these countries, believes Stanislav Pritchin, the Russian Expert on CIS.
Documents required for the establishment of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be ready for the summit of the Eurasian Economic Community by late November, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov said on Oct. 14.
All key documents on the establishment of the Customs Union were approved by the organization member countries.
At the upcoming meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council at the level of Heads of State, to be held on Nov. 27, it is expected to adopt a unified customs tariff and Customs Code of the Union, providing for its entry into force and transferring power in the field of customs administration to the union on July 1, 2010.
According to Pritchin, importance of the created Union will depend directly on the quality of its organization.
"It all depends on how this union will be implemented," Pritchin said over telephone from Moscow. "If the union is created with a single unified customs law, one will see a single economic space with free movement of capital and goods."
In this case, in his view, the participant countries will be interested in mutual investments, and in cooperating with one another.
"If a project of the customs union will be implemented well, it will increase the investment attractiveness of the participant countries and productive impact on the economic image of these countries," said Pritchin.
When establishing a union, the internal common market will increase: Kazakhstan and Belarus will join Russia, that is, the market will increase by nearly 30 million people, experts said.
"If a western company decides because of the low cost to open a representative office, for instance in Kazakhstan, it will be able to count on the sale of goods on the market of Russia and Belarus, as well," said the expert.
However, fruitful activity of the customs union will fully depend on whether all ideas for its establishment will be implemented, believes Pritchin.
The decision to establish the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus was made by the heads of these countries on Oct. 6, 2007. On June 9, 2009, at the meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council, the Heads of Government decided that the Customs Union will be launched on Jan. 1, 2010.
Establishing a single customs territory in practice would mean to apply single rates of import customs tariff to all types of goods, to abolish customs barriers between the participants of the Customs Union (Russia-Belarus - from July 1, 2010, Kazakhstan-Russia - from July 1, 2011.) and to transfer all types to state control (excluding the border) at the customs border of the Union.
The EurAsEC within which it is planned to establish the Union is an international economic organization whose functions relate to the common external customs borders of its member countries, the elaboration of unified foreign economic policies, tariffs, prices and other components of the functioning of the common market.
The organization includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan decided to quit the organization in late 2008.