Economic integration between Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus to facilitate accession to WTO - Nazarbayev

SCOW. November 18. KAZINFORM /Narymbek Ismagulov/ Establishing a full-fledged Eurasian Economic Union will be possible in case of successful coordination of macroeconomic indicators and tariffs on monopolies between Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told a press conference after the meeting with his Russian and Belarusian counterparts in Moscow.

"We want the integration union between our countries to become the most attractive project to other participants. By establishing the Customs Union we have ensured free movement of goods. And the Common Economic Space will create conditions for the common market, capital and labor," Nazarbayev said.

"First of all, we must coordinate macroeconomic indicators of our countries, including the external debt, inflation, internal tariffs, free movement of capital and labor, etc. Secondly, we will coordinate the issues of monopolies - common transport tariffs of railroads, and by 2015 - uniform tariffs for oil and gas transportation," the Kazakh President emphasized.

According to Nazarbayev, fulfilling these indicators will mean that the Eurasian Economic Union is fully operational. Thus during the next five years 175 national authorities will be vested in supranational bodies, which will make decisions on the basis of general consensus, that does not infringe upon the sovereignty of the countries belonging to the union.

Nazarbayev noted that the three countries should strengthen competitiveness of economies before the accession to the WTO.