Belarus’ EAEU Presidency Priorities
Having an export-oriented economy, Belarus is extremely interested in the free movement of goods and services in the EAEU and boosting its foreign trade.
There are five full-fledged members in the Eurasian Economic Union. These are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia.
In accordance with the EAEU Treaty, the key task of the Union is to improve the welfare of citizens of the member states. With this in mind, the five states are working on the formation of the single market of the EAEU, which is designed to ensure the "four freedoms": the freedom of the movement of goods, services, capital and labor in the entire territory of the EAEU.
Along with optimizing the powers of supranational institutions, this will require the gradual development of the coordinated policies (energy, transport) and uniform policies (industrial, agricultural) in the EAEU.
In terms of ensuring equal conditions of competition, the application of non-discriminatory approaches to the formation of energy prices and transportation tariffs is of crucial importance.
It is necessary to eliminate distortions in the systems of technical regulation, sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary measures that lead to technical barriers in the internal markets of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Belarus advocates for the expansion of foreign trade between the EAEU member states by concluding agreements on free trade zones between the EAEU and third countries. Apart from the previously concluded agreements with Vietnam, Serbia, Singapore, as well as a temporary agreement with Iran, the negotiation process with Egypt, Indonesia and the UAE is in full swing. The signing of a full-format free trade agreement with Iran is in the final stage.
The efficiency of the Union will depend on the introduction of mechanisms ensuring the unconditional implementation of decisions of the EAEU bodies aimed at removing barriers in the EAEU domestic market.
The supranational competences of the Eurasian Economic Commission will need to be strengthened, first of all, in the areas with the greatest number of restrictions and exemptions (technical regulations, sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary measures, public procurement, subsidies).
It is important to achieve unity in the application of instruments of state control over the movement of goods in the countries of the Union (product identification labelling, product traceability). The application of these instruments should not create new technical barriers in the markets or increase unjustifiably the fiscal and administrative burden on businesses.
The control and supervisory bodies of the member states will continue working on coordinating the approaches to guarantee the safety of products circulating in the EAEU market, to develop effective market mechanisms for the protection of the EAEU market from counterfeit products and harmonize the intellectual property protection measures.
Work to create legal, economic and technological conditions for setting up common markets of electricity, gas, oil and petroleum products in the EAEU will be continued as part of the programs to develop these markets. At the same time, a two-tier model will remain in place.
Gradual liberalization of freight and passenger traffic in the EAEU domestic market will be a significant step towards closer integration and more robust economies of the EAEU members states. So will the formation of a coordinated transport policy on transit traffic through the territory of the EAEU member states from/to third countries.
A common financial market will be developed through the harmonization of financial legislation with an aim to create equal conditions for suppliers and consumers of financial services throughout the territory of the Union. The priority is the creation of a uniform payment infrastructure to carry out cross-border payments in the national currencies of the EAEU countries and mutual conversion of national currencies.
The EAEU member states will continue cooperating on the digital agenda. The legal and institutional frameworks regulating the development of the digital society and digital economy will be approximated within the framework of the strategy for the development of the cross-border space of trust and the EAEU digital agenda guidelines until 2025.
As for the international cooperation, Belarus, holding the EAEU presidency, remains committed to the idea of integration of integrations, alignment and harmonization of the interests of the existing integration associations across Eurasia.