The prime ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states have signed a free trade agreement.
The agreement eliminates export and import duties on a host of goods. It also contains a number of exemptions that will ultimately be phased out. The agreement was signed by all the CIS states except Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stressed that the deal is "a fundamental document that will lay the groundwork for long-term relations." He remembered that in 1994 the CIS countries signed an agreement on free trade zone, but the document was not ratified by many states, including Russia. Therefore, the contract did not actually work. Work on the new document was conducted almost for a decade.
The contract involves simplifying the legal framework of trade and economic relations between the countries that sign it, replacing a number of multilateral and bilateral order of 100 documents regulating the regime of free trade today on the space community.
Also an agreement was signed on basic principles of policy of monetary regulation and currency control in the CIS countries, as well as the decision on the concept of strategic development of railway transport of the Commonwealth until 2020. A total of 28 documents were signed.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hopes that Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan will sign a treaty on forming a free trade zone in the CIS by late 2011. The three countries have not yet signed up to new agreement, already agreed with the other eight CIS countries - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan.
Speaking at a press conference following the meetings of the EurAsEC Interstate Council and the Supreme Body of the Customs Union today, Mr. Putin expressed confidence that the existing economic integration will lead to Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan joining the treaty on free trade zone by the end of the year late 2011, by allowing them more time to consider the agreement.