Translated material
"Union" tariff
Russia has legalized market relations with Belarus
The governments of Russia and Belarus found the strength not to complicate their allied relations, which were already full of friction and contradictions. On Friday in Minsk, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, they nevertheless signed an agreement on measures for trade and economic cooperation . This document, according to the parties, is a serious step towards the formation of a real unified economic and customs space between the two countries.It took three days to agree on controversial points, which suddenly emerged last Tuesday, when the document was supposed to be signed in Moscow, at the Ministry of Economic Development. Then the signing failed due to the fact that the Belarusian side tried to make changes to the already initialed document.
By the time Mikhail Fradkov arrived in the Belarusian capital on Friday for the next meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, the Russian side managed to persuade their colleagues to withdraw most of the new demands. According to Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev, these requirements concerned mainly the deadlines for the implementation of certain agreements. Moreover, it is quite understandable why Minsk wanted to delay the start of their implementation. Today, there are about 150 restrictions on the supply of Russian products to its ally , and after they are lifted, which the trade agreement provides for, Belarus could lose, according to a number of expert estimates, up to $2.5 billion. However, in Minsk, as well as in Moscow, they understand perfectly well that that without such an agreement, the union of Russia and Belarus is completely unrealistic.
“The main idea of the agreement is to create conditions for freer access of goods to the markets of our countries in order to avoid the restrictions that still exist. This agreement consolidates the entire package that was previously agreed on key goods - both oil and gas, and meets the requirements of international trade, based on the idea of transitioning our relations to the principles of a market economy. We are satisfied with the work done, and this further strengthens the common economic space and meets the interests of our countries,” Mikhail Fradkov said after the signing. “The main thing in the signed agreement is its focus on a single customs union,” added Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky.
Among the fundamental provisions of the document is the abolition by Belarus, from June 1, 2007, of taxes and fees from enterprises with Russian investments that are not provided for by the tax legislation of Belarus. We are talking, in particular, about Slavneft , which owns a stake in the Belarusian Mozyr Oil Refinery, to which at the end of last year the Belarusian authorities sharply increased payments to the national development fund.
In addition, Belarus will abolish quotas for the import of fish from Russia, the fee for the transit passage of trucks and buses owned or leased by Russian residents (or will equalize the amount of these fees with that applied to residents of Belarus), and will also stop requiring its agricultural producers to purchase necessary equipment only in your own country. Russia, in turn, has pledged, in particular, to abolish until May 15 the fee for registering Belarusian transport at customs when entering Russian territory. Registration was introduced in mid-February 2007, which led to huge queues at border crossings. “We are trying not to create artificial problems for each other, including in the customs sphere, and we will once again study the current situation and see how the problem can be solved. We will try to minimize costs,” said Mr. Fradkov. At the same time, he noted that the problem goes beyond the creation of a single customs union between Belarus and Russia: “Today there are problems with the movement of goods at undeveloped crossings, and we will try to solve these problems.”
Another document was signed in Minsk, which could also lead to economic losses for Belarus. This is an agreement on the terms of supplies of Belarusian sugar to Russia in 2007 and 2008. As Sergei Mitin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, said in response to a question from a Vremya Novostei correspondent, this year Belarusian sugar producers will supply 180 thousand tons of sugar to Russia, and next year even less - 100 thousand tons (last year imports Belarusian sugar amounted to approximately 220 thousand tons). In the long term, judging by the words of the deputy minister, supplies may stop altogether, since Russia, with its 92 sugar factories (Belarus has only four), “aims to completely provide itself with its own sugar.”
Despite the obvious losses of Belarus, the Russian side is not yet in a hurry to extend a helping hand to it in the form of a stabilization loan of $1.5 billion, which Minsk has been asking for for a long time. “We are considering the appeal of the government of the Republic of Belarus, clarifying it, finding out in order to make a meaningful, difficult decision, which involves large sums. We must be sure that this will benefit our relations and help resolve a number of economic issues in Belarus,” Mr. Fradkov told reporters. “This issue will be resolved in the near future,” the prime minister reassured his Belarusian partners.
However, Russia may well help Belarus not only with loans, but also with new investments in enterprises that will be put up for sale. At least on Friday, Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky invited Russian companies to participate in privatization, which was decided by the Belarusian government. He recalled that Russian investors are already building a large paper production plant in Belarus.