Russia to keep customs control if Belarus doesn
ST. PETERSBURG. June 17 (Interfax) - Russia will keep the border with Belarus under customs control after July 1 if Belarus does not join the Customs Union under the general arrangements, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
"If Belarus does not bind itself with a single customs code, we will have to keep customs control in place. If the Customs Union starts working fully from July 1, the border will be transparent," he said.
Shuvalov also said that all documents have been drawn up on the formation of the Customs Union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The format - Russia-Kazakhstan or Russia-Kazakhstan-Belarus - will be defined at the nearest meeting of the interstate council of the Eurasian Economic Cooperation Forum," he said.
The Customs Union standards are not at variance with the standards applied by the European Union and the World Trade Organization, he said.
"We confirm that there are no contradictions with the EU and WTO standards," Shuvalov said.