MOSCOW, 7 December (BelTA) – Belarus receives 1% less than expected from the distribution of import customs duties in the Eurasian Economic Union according to any available calculation methods. Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Petrishenko made the statement on 7 December while summing up results of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council session held in St Petersburg the day before, BelTA has learned.
Igor Petrishenko said: “Experts have prepared five methods. No new methods have been suggested. According to all the five methods, Belarus has to get an extra 1% from the distribution of import customs duties.”
“We don't care what methods we have to use, but according to any method Belarus must get an extra 1%,” specified the deputy prime minister.
Igor Petrishenko reminded that when Armenia and Kyrgyzstan wanted to join the Eurasian Economic Union, the other members of the union – Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan – agreed to redistribute part of their customs duties to the new members.
“We believe the union needs a clear and fair method to calculate the customs duties,” said the deputy prime minister. “The Belarusian head of state suggested revising it every three years. The sides agreed that the discussion would continue because there is still time till December 2019 to come up with a method for splitting the customs duties to everyone's satisfaction.”
Igor Petrishenko said that experts, who work out methods for distributing the customs duties, admit Belarus' losses. “The Eurasian Economic Union has to be fair,” concluded Igor Petrishenko.
For now the distribution scheme looks like this: Armenia gets 1.22% of the total, Belarus – 4.56%, Kazakhstan – 7.055%, Kyrgyzstan – 1.9%, and Russia – 85.265%.
