CIS
nations eye free trade zone by
2013 By Sergei Blagov
The latest top-level meeting of the oldest
post-Soviet grouping, the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS), pledged to enact their
free-trade arrangements next year. However, the
CIS free-trade zone (FTZ) agreement has not been
ratified by some signatory nations, while other
CIS member states have continued to refrain from
joining the deal.
During the meeting of
the CIS prime ministers at the investment forum in
Yalta on September 27-29, Ukraine's Prime Minister
Nikolai Azarov urged all CIS member states to join
the FTZ
agreement. He voiced hope that
the CIS free-trade arrangements would take effect
at the beginning of 2013.
The prime
ministers of the CIS, which includes 11 former
Soviet states, were keen to present their grouping
as a viable institution. Russian Prime Minister
Dmitry Medvedev described speculations that the
CIS was dropping into irrelevance as "groundless".
Medvedev told the Yalta forum that the CIS
free-trade zone came as an effective institution
based on the principles of the World Trade
Organization (WTO). He said the FTZ agreement was
already ratified by Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
Armenia and Moldova. Medvedev invited other
nations to join the FTZ agreement.
During
the CIS meeting in St. Petersburg on October 18,
2011, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine signed the
new free-trade agreement. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan,
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan refrained from joining
the FTZ.
The new CIS free-trade agreement
replaced an earlier agreement on establishing a
free-trade zone concluded in 1994. However, this
earlier agreement was not ratified by many CIS
member states, including Russia. But last year,
Russia's top officials insisted that the new CIS
free-trade arrangements would not contradict the
WTO principles and norms as Armenia, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova and Ukraine are also WTO member countries.
Separately, Russia has been pursuing its
customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan that was
designed to evolve into a new Eurasian economic
alliance. Yet despite repeated Russian
invitations, other CIS member states, notably
Ukraine, have remained reluctant to join the
customs union.
The Yalta meeting approved
further expansion of the CIS free-trade zone and
noted that Uzbekistan indicated plans to join the
FTZ. The CIS prime ministers also adopted a
blueprint to expand information technology (IT)
cooperation, to develop the joint Mir-24
television channel and some other agreements. They
also decided to continue financing the joint
air-defense system in 2013.
According to
Russian media outlets the CIS membership was not
exceedingly burdensome, at least for some member
states. Russian business daily Kommersant
commented that the CIS nations agreed to continue
modest payments for the grouping's membership.
While Russia is due to pay 429 million roubles
(US$13.9 million) in 2013, Ukraine will pay 69
million roubles, Kazakhstan - 52 million roubles,
Belarus - 30 million roubles, and Turkmenistan -
only 785,000 roubles. Medvedev also used the
opportunity to promote the Russian ruble as a
potential reserve currency.
Although the
CIS has remained an important element of the
post-Soviet diplomacy, officials have conceded
their CIS-related expectations have become
increasingly limited. For example, the Yalta
meeting decided to discontinue the CIS oil and gas
council. It was created in 1993 as a venue for
energy discussions, but the council has remained
idle since 2003.
Furthermore, in recent
years even the CIS top-level meetings happened to
be ignored by some member states. In September
2011, Tajikistan hosted the CIS summit that was
marked by a number of abstentions as the leaders
of Azerbaijan, Belarus and Uzbekistan refrained
from coming.
These top-level no-shows
apparently indicated that some member states were
becoming increasingly reluctant to prioritize the
grouping. The next CIS summit is due in November
2012 in Ashgabat. It remains to be seen whether
the grouping's top-level meeting could be able to
strengthen the viability of the CIS.
Meanwhile, Russia has been keen to promote
closer economic ties between member states and the
CIS and the new FTZ agreement was in line with
that goal. However, continued Russian efforts to
lure the CIS member states into closer forms of
economic integration have entailed limited results
so far.
Prior to working as
Moscow-based independent researcher and
journalist, Dr Sergei Blagov was a newswire
reporter. He spent nearly seven years reporting
from Hanoi, Vietnam, between 1983 and 1997.
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