“I believe that, in principle, we should not have barriers in mutual trade, this is the essence of our union,” stressed the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, at the summit of the EEU (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) which is held in Bishkek.
According to Lukashenko, this will solve the problem of supplying the national markets with essential imports and the coordination of actions for the export of goods of strategic importance, mainly food.
“But today the reality is that we continue to struggle with the consequences of decisions made at the national level,” he complained.
“Either we can’t export timber or we don’t allow international road carriers through while the search for mutually acceptable solutions takes too long,” he said.
Lukashenko pointed out the need to ensure the implementation of joint projects to create modern and future industries as soon as possible, in order to counter the Western sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
The president maintained that the decisions made within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union “have significantly reduced the negative effect of the pressure of sanctions” and have supported important sectors of the economy, but the organization “must not stop given the fundamental changes in the world”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with his Belarusian counterpart.
“We have to work more effectively to remove barriers. That is true. They interfere with free trade between our countries and we have to work more vigorously,” he stressed.
“The five states are closely cooperating in the field of transport and logistics, the volume of mutual transport of cargo is growing, which was helped by the increase in the capacity of border crossings between our countries. Although of course there is still work to do,” he said.
The President of Kazakhstan, Kasim-Yomart Tokáyev, also stressed that the EEU countries must prevent restrictions on the transit of goods through the territory of the union.
“I think it would be necessary to remove all cases of movement restriction, quotas and retention of Kazakh and non-Kazakh goods transiting through our common customs territory,” he stressed.
“Such restrictions are inconsistent with the objectives and the spirit of economic cooperation within the UEE,” it said.