Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka signed the new Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union on April 11.
“Belarus signed the EAEU Customs Code yesterday. The Commission has already received it and it will be published on our website soon. However, it does not mean that it has already come into force, since it is an international treaty so it should be ratified by all parties,” Nekrasov said on the sidelines of a conference on key foreign trade issues,” Dmitry Nekrasov, head of the Department of Customs Legislation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, told reporters on Wednesday.
The information has also been confirmed by president Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s spokeswoman Natallya Eysmant. The Code is expected to come into force on July 1, 2017.
On December 26, 2016 leaders of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Kazakhstan signed the Customs Code at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. Alyaksandr Lukashenka failed to attend the meeting. Later, he said he had not sign the Customs Code, because many agreements in this area ‘did not work’. He also instructed Belarusian specialists to withdraw from the line up of the Customs agencies of the Eurasian Economic Community.
After last week’s meeting the leaders of Belarus and Russia claimed they had settled a long gas and oil conflict between the countries as well as ‘all the disputable issues in bilateral relations’. According to political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsau, Alyaksandr Lukashenka ‘meekly agreed’ to all conditions set by Russia.
