MINSK, 11 December (BelTA) - At the current stage, it is necessary to increase the volume and sustainability of trade flows both within and outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), first President of Kazakhstan, Honorary Chairman of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on 11 December, BelTA has learned.
“Our union should become a center of attraction of global production and trade flows. We need to accelerate the pace of integration of industrial potentials of our countries,” Nursultan Nazarbayev said, speaking about the EAEU priorities.
According to the first president of Kazakhstan, the volume of non-primary goods in the mutual trade of the EAEU countries makes up only 16%. “We need to attract and localize large-scale elements of future higher value added chains, now being shifted from the Southeast Asian region,” he believes.
“It is necessary to increase the volume and sustainability of trade flows both inside and outside the EAEU. The potential of mutual trade of our countries is still hugely untapped. Unfortunately, mutual trade is currently less than 9% of the EAEU external trade. It is our main task to increase trade inside, to replace imported goods with goods from our member-states. For comparison, in such unions as the EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, this figure is 63%, 49% and 45% respectively,” he added.
Speaking about the outgoing year, Nursultan Nazarbayev stressed: “In this difficult period, the EAEU member states, as bona fide partners, have not succumbed to protectionist panic and have not allowed themselves any unfriendly economic actions towards each other. This confirms that the integration course we are pursuing is the only right one. I am sure that joint coordinated actions will let us overcome the crisis consequences and reach a higher level of development of our union.”
Nursultan Nazarbayev also mentioned a number of successes in the EAEU integration processes. Over the last five years, the EAEU mutual trade increased by 35% and amounted to $62 billion (it was $46 billion in 2015). Aggregate GDP went up by 21% to reach $2 trillion.
“It is important to continue working on building common markets, developing a barrier-free space of the Eurasian Economic Union. I would like to emphasize that our integration should be based solely on economic feasibility. Economic interests should serve as the main driver behind integration processes,” he concluded.
