Belarus calls for exemptions-free trade, common energy market in EEU


As a member of the Eurasian Economic Union Belarus will seek to remove exemptions and restrictions to trade. Other goals are a coherent industrial policy and common energy market, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Ihar Petryshenka said when speaking at the roundtable “EEU and trading partners: common economic space” at the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Ambassador stressed that the main goal which a state seeks to accomplish when joining an integration union is to maximize the economic potential of each member for its own benefit and for the benefit of the entire region.

“Belarus is no exception,” the diplomat said. “We are an industrial export-oriented country. The share of exports in the Belarusian GDP is traditionally over 50%. At the same time we have the impressive dependence on import: 68% of GDP is produced with the use of imported raw materials and components, which come mainly from the Eurasian Economic Union member states. Given this, the goal number one for us in the union is to remove exemptions and restrictions to trade in goods and services, to ensure equal access for economic entities to procurement government contracts. The second goal is to ensure a coordinated industrial policy, which implies, on the one hand, country specialization in order to eliminate redundant duplicating productions, and, on the other hand, implementation of new high-tech projects using joint scientific, production and financial capabilities. The third goal is to develop the common energy market in order to ensure equal conditions for competition between manufacturers of the member countries,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes the envoy as saying.

As reported before, Alyaksandr Lukashenka called on Vladimir Putin to lift restrictions in Belarus-Russia trade when the Russian leader arrived in Minsk to discuss the Belarusian-Russian trade and economic cooperation and other important issues of bilateral relations.

Read also: Money talks. Belarus set to export as many goods to EU as to EEU

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