Customs Union trade up about 40% in 2011 - EEC
MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Mutual trade in the Customs Union increased roughly 40% last year, minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) for integration and macroeconomics Tatyana Valovaya said at the 'Open Russia: From the Common Economic Space to the Eurasian Union' congress in Moscow on Tuesday.
"From the moment the Customs Union was created [January 1, 2010], the rate of mutual trade is growing, growing very confidently," Valovaya said. Even so, prices are a factor, and the trend is "very hopeful," she said.
Nonetheless, mutual trade volume among Customs Union members remains comparatively low at around 25% at this point. In the European Union the figure is "virtually two thirds," she noted.
The EEC is a national organization of the Common Economic Space involving Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The agreement setting up the commission was signed by the three governments last November. The EEC's main aim is the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union. It handles integration processes in the format of the Customs Union and Common Economic Space.
The Eurasian Economic Commission consists of a council and collegium. The council was set up at the deputy prime ministerial level and engages in the general regulation of integration processes. Russia's representative on the council is First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.
The collegium is the main working agency, to which all the countries delegate three representatives with the status of international bureaucrats. Russia's representative here is former Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko.