MINSK, 4 December (BelTA) – Tariff rates will be increased in respect of 6.7% of commodity items in the Customs Union, Vice Premier of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov said at a session of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly on 4 December. According to Andrei Kobyakov, 74.6% of commodity items will not be exposed to increase in tariff rates in Customs Union, tariffs for 18.7% of commodity items are likely to be reduced. On the whole the three countries have reached a high level of unification of customs tariffs. Belarus has so far unified 95% of duties with Russia. Russia and Kazakhstan have unified 38% of duties. Bearing in mind the high level of Belarus-Russia unification, no big changes are expected to take place in Belarus after the unified customs tariffs take effect on 1 January 2010, Andrei Kobyakov stressed. In his words, the introduction of the unified customs tariffs within the Customs Union and the delegation of the responsibility for all tariff matters to the Customs Union Commission are the key moments of the new integration association. “What are the benefits for Belarus here? The import regulated by the unified customs tariffs account for 34.1% of the total. The rest is the import from the CIS which is a free trade zone,” Andrei Kobyakov said. He emphasized that the Russian energy constitutes half of Belarus’ import from the CIS. БЕЛТА
Written by belta.by
