Eurasian Customs Union

Eurasian Customs Union
Policy of		EAEU
Type		Customs union
Member states		Armenia  Belarus  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Russia
Establishment		1 January 2010
Area
•	Total	20,260,431 km2 7,822,596 sq mi
Population
•	2013 estimate	182,519,270[1][2][3][4][5]
•	Density	9.01/km2 23.3/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2013 estimate
•	Total	US$4.064 trillion[6]
•	Per capita	US$22,267
GDP (nominal)		2013 estimate
•	Total	$2.407 trillion (excluding Armenia and Kyrgyzstan)[7]
•	Per capita	US$22,267 (excluding Armenia and Kyrgyzstan)

The Eurasian Customs Union (EACU) is a customs union which consists of all the Member states of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The customs union is a principal task of the Eurasian Economic Community, established in 2000, and now succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union. No customs are levied on goods travelling within the customs union and—unlike a free trade area—members of the customs union impose a common external tariff on all goods entering the union. One of the consequences of the customs union is that the Eurasian Union negotiates as a single entity in international trade deals such as the World Trade Organisation, instead of individual member states negotiating for themselves.

It came into existence on 1 January 2010. Its founding states were Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.^[8] On 2 January 2015 it was enlarged to include Armenia. Kyrgyzstan acceded to the EEU on 6 August 2015.^[9] The original treaty establishing the Customs Union was terminated by the agreement establishing the Eurasian Economic Union, signed in 2014, which incorporated the Customs Union into the EEU's legal framework.

The member states continued with economic integration and removed all customs borders between each other after July 2011. On 19 November 2011, the member states put together a joint commission on fostering closer economic ties, planning to create a Eurasian Economic Union by 2015.^[10][11] On 1 January 2012, the three states formed a single economic space to promote further economic integration.^[11][12] The Eurasian Economic Commission is the regulatory agency for the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Community.^[11]

The creation of the Eurasian Customs Union was guaranteed by 3 different treaties signed in 1995, 1999 and 2007. The first treaty in 1995 guaranteeing its creation, the second in 1999 guaranteeing its formation, and the third in 2007 announced the establishment of a common customs territory and the formation of the customs union.

Overview

Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia. Passengers from Kazakhstan are no longer subject to customs inspections.

Export

• When exporting goods a zero rated VAT is guaranteed and (or) the exemption (refunds) of excise taxes if sufficient documentary evidence has been provided (proof of export).

Imports

• Imported goods into the territory of the Russia from the territory of Belarus or Kazakhstan are subject to VAT and excise duties and are levied by the Russian tax authorities.^[13]

87.95% of customs import duties come from Russia's budget, 4.7% from Belarus and the remainder from Kazakhstan.^[14]

Market access to Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) - CU EAC Approval

*this article has been updated in November 2016*

Nominal World GDP and GDP of Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in 2011.

  European Union: $17.1 trillion (25%)

  United States: $14.8 trillion (22%)

  China: $7.2 trillion (10%)

  Japan: $5.8 trillion (8%)

  Other countries: $22.2 trillion (32%)

  Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan
 and Russia: $2.1 trillion (3%)

Access of products to the single territory of the Eurasian Economic Union - EAEU (Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan) - formerly Customs Union is granted after products have proved to be compliant with the requirements of Customs Union Technical Regulations which are applicable to the product. As of September 2016, 36 Customs Union Technical Regulations have been developed covering different types of products. Some Technical Regulations are being still developed. Here you can see the list of developed CU TRs.

There are two types of conformity assessment procedures - Certification (CoC) and Declaration (DoC). List of products which are subject to Certification and Declaration is provided in the relevant CU Technical Regulations. The customer can always choose to order CU Certificate instead of CU Declaration.

For Declaration of Conformity the Applicant must be a local entity registered at the territory of a EAEU Member Country. The range of Applicants for Certification is defined in the relevant Technical Regulations (e.g. for CU TR 004/2011 Safety of low voltage equipment and CU TR 020/2011 Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) the Applicant can be either a Manufacturer including a Foreign Manufacturer of local EAEU entity).

All conformity assessment works (testing/inspection/certification) can only be done by local Certification Bodies/Testing Laboratories accredited in the EAEU Member countries by their National Accrediting Authorities. However where the EAEU countries are Members of International Organizations (such as IECEE), competent national Certification Bodies in EAEU accredited in the same International Organizations (if we speak about IECEE, the list of EAEU Certification Bodies accredited in IECEE you can check via the following link) have the legal right to recognize the works results of the National Certification Bodies from the other Member countries of these International Organizations.

For products which successfully passed the CU EAC conformity assessment procedure - a CU EAC Certificate is issued (see example of CU EAC Certificate) . All Certificates/Declarations are officially registered (by the Certification Bodies) in the Registers for CU EAC Certificates/Declarations maintained by each Member Country. The term of validity is defined in the Certificate (it can be up to 5 years). For series manufacturing Certificates -there's mandatory annual surveillance procedure (performed via sample test or factory inspection).

Products complying with all applicable CU Technical Regulations shall be marked with mandatory EAC Mark.

The EAEU Member countries managed to agree on unification of requirments for most of categories of products/services (that is CU Technical Regulations). However:

a) There are areas where national requirements are valid in each member country. E.g. for RF (radiotelecommunication) appliances/modules. It is not currently planned to develop unified requirements in the EAEU for this type of products, but things may change someday. As of today, it is not expected that unified requirements in EAEU for radio-telecom appliances/modules would appear earlier than the year 2020.

b) Due to uneasy process of development of Technical Regulation System in EAEU, the national member countries are starting to implement national requirements in the areas strategically important for these countries in the absence of proper quality unified EAEU Technical Regulations. e.g. Belarus introduces mandatory national energy efficiency requirements for electrical products on its territory from 01.02.2017.

Before Technical Regulations came into force, the following approvals were the basis for access to the Eurasian Economic Union (Customs Union) Member Countries:

• National approvals/certificates – they are good for access of product to the country where this approval/certificate has been issued.
• Customs Union Certificates/Approvals issued in accordance with the “List of products subject to mandatory conformity approval in the Customs Union” – such Certificate/Approval is valid in all the three Member Countries of the Customs Union.

The growth rate of the total turnover of foreign and mutual trade of the Customs Union (growth of the quarter compared to the corresponding period of the previous year). The Common Customs Code was established on July 1, 2010 (blue vertical line). Data source: Eurasian Economic Commission, Department of Statistics[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Opinion polling

Beginning in 2012, the Eurasian Development Bank (established by Russia and Kazakhstan) conducts regular opinion polling of selected states with regards to Eurasian integration projects. The following question was asked to the residents of the selected countries, translated from Russian to their native language:

• "Беларусь, Казахстан и Россия объединились в Таможенный союз, который освободил торговлю между тремя странами от пошлин, и создали Единое экономическое пространство (по сути - единый рынок трех стран). Как Вы относитесь к этому решению?"
• Unofficial English translation: "Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia have united in a Customs Union, which has removed tariffs from their mutual trade, and created a Common Economic Space (essentially - a common market of the three countries). How do you feel about this decision?"

The results for the sum of answers "Favorably" and "Very favorably" are below:^[22][23][24]

Country	2012	2013	2014
Russia	72%	67%	79%
Belarus	60%	65%	68%
Kazakhstan	80%	73%	84%
Armenia	61%	67%	64%
Kyrgyzstan	67%	72%	50%
Azerbaijan	38%	37%	22%
Moldova	65%	54%	49%
Tajikistan	76%	75%	72%
Uzbekistan	67%	77%	68%
Ukraine	57%	50%	31%
Turkmenistan	No data	50%	No data
Georgia	30%	59%	53%

Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia are current members of the Customs Union, noted in blue. Georgia is a non-CIS member state which participated in polling, noted in red. Turkmenistan opted out of polling in 2012 and 2014, but participated in 2013.

According to opinion polls by Razumkov Centre and Sociological group "RATING" Eurasian Customs Union membership in Ukraine was favoured by 22% (Razumkov Centre in June 2014) and 17% ("RATING" in November 2014).^[25][26] A February 2015 opinion poll by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology stated that 12% of the polled (Ukrainians) supported joining the Eurasian Customs Union.^[27]

Criticism

The United States opposes the Customs Union, claiming it as an attempt to "reestablish a Russian-dominated USSR-type union among the Post-Soviet states".^[28]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurasian Economic Community.

• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Union State
• Eurasian Economic Community
• Collective Security Treaty Organization
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
• Eurasian Economic Union
• Soviet Union
• European Union
• Free trade areas in Europe
• European Union Customs Union
• Post-Soviet states
• Trade bloc
• Schengen Area

References

External links

• Official website (Russian), (English), (Armenian), (Kazakh), (Belarusian)

Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)
Member states	Armenia Belarus Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia Eurasian Economic Union Union State
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