Belarus and Russia are intent on liberalizing the market of cabotage transportation services (domestic automobile transportation by foreign forwarding agencies) as fast as possible. The statement was made by Sergei Rumas, member of the Eurasian Economic Commission Council from Belarus, as he commented on results of the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of heads of state, BelTA has learned. “Maybe for the first time in our troika integration relations we are about to achieve different speeds of integration via the treaty. There are a number of economy branches where the three countries may advance at different speeds. In particular, as far as the market of automobile transportation is concerned, Belarus and Russia have similar views and there is an understanding that the market of cabotage transportation should be liberalized faster,” said the expert. The liberalization will be separated into several stages. The first one will begin on 1 January 2016: Belarusian forwarding agencies will be granted access to cabotage transportation in Russia. Kazakhstan will join Russia and Belarus in 2025. Sergei Rumas noted: “Russia and Belarus will try to secure permits for transportation from and to third countries better. At present Belarus fully satisfies the need of Russian forwarding companies for these permits. We hope that Russia will also increase the number of such permits issued to the Belarusian side as from 2015”. Asked about the market of air transportation, the expert stated that the industry is very specific and cannot be opened just like any other part of the services market. “These segments are protected in all countries therefore economic considerations are not the point,” believes Sergei Rumas. He pointed out that Belarus has no complaints about partners and the partners have no complaints about Belarus regarding the access to the air transportation market, but there are technical considerations, which are better left for relevant agencies to discuss. BelTA reported earlier that at the session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council the heads of state gave instructions to polish all the rough spots in the Eurasian Economic Union treaty as soon as possible for the sake of getting the document ready for signing at the troika summit in Astana on 29 May. The task was assigned to the Eurasian Economic Commission and the governments of the three countries. The draft Eurasian Economic Union treaty includes a large part of the codified documents of the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space, about 70 international treaties and the new norms that have been included into the document in development of the arrangements. The new norms legislate the expansion of the common market onto previously uncovered segments, in particular, the energy sector and the services market.
Written by belta.by
