EEU: antimonopoly regulation to replace reciprocal protective measures
MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - Antimonopoly regulation will replace reciprocal protective measures among the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states, EEU Trade Minister Andrei Slepnev told journalists.
"The entire area of mechanisms in the broad understanding of antimonopoly and competition legislation is receiving its development. Simply the instruments that we have set down on paper are only now being introduced. We aren't feeling them yet," Slepnev said.
The Eurasian Economic Commission is hoping that the rules against a company abusing its dominating market position is put in place this summer, even though there was not a single case of such abuse registered within the Customs Union, he said. Once the EEU is founded next year, the commission will have the authority to conduct transnational market investigations.
"As for state assistance, we currently have an agreement on subsidies to industry and agriculture. That piece was modernized and firmed up to a certain degree during the codification," Slepnev said.
Specifically, he said, the methodology for computing agricultural subsidies, which has been a source of numerous disputes with Belarus, has been fine tuned. In addition, industrial subsidy issues, including those in sensitive areas such as automotive assembly, have been adjusted. Questions on how components manufactured by Customs Union member states affect subsidies were also firmed up.
"For this piece we actually found good mechanisms for preventing and reacting to abuses on the common market," he said.
Moreover, he said, the protection measures being canceled under the EEU agreement were effectively inoperative within the Customs Union given the lack of customs borders. "There was not a single instance of a violation, not even an inquiry," Slepnev said.
"Antimonopoly and competition legislation seems to be more effective, particularly with the subsidy mechanism added in," he said.