EEU Customs Code to enter into force by mid-2017

MOSCOW (BelTA) – The Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is expected to enter into force by the mid-2017, Member (Minister) for Customs Cooperation at the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Mukai Kadyrkulov said, BelTA learned from the EEC press service.

“The draft Customs Code is nearly ready,” said Mukai Kadyrkulov. “There are still issues on which we still need to agree. The Commission has been intensively working on this. We plan to submit the draft code for signature before the end of the year. We hope that by the middle of 2017, after the necessary domestic procedures for the ratification of the document are completed, our countries will finally get the new customs legislation corresponding to the current level of integration and technological development,” he noted.

Mukai Kadyrkulov noted that the rules enunciated in the draft Customs Code cannot be regarded as an innovation in its purest form. “We have been working on the draft for a long time. The norms, which were considered as progressive at the start of this work, reflect largely the existing practices today. Indeed, the draft customs code should unify and regulate the practices, which are applied locally (in a test mode) in every state, and make then uniform throughout the union,” he added.

The Minister also stressed that the draft Customs Code takes into account the interests of business. Mukai Kadyrkulov said: “First customs codes in the post-Soviet republics were developed in the early 1990s. This period was characterized by immense export of raw materials. Therefore the first customs laws envisaged strict control measures. But later the course of events showed that the customs practice should rather rely on the balance of the interests of business and the state. When developing the customs code we tried to take into account, as much as possible, the interests of business,” he noted.