The Government of Belarus connects the economic crisis existing in the country and the failure of the economic system with joining the Customs Union. “The Customs Union is to be blamed in everything”, an article with this title was published in “Nezavisimaya Gazeta”. In the article, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko came up with the following criticism, “In view of imperfections in the Customs Union and Common Economic Area’s legislative framework, with its numerous exceptions and exemptions, we bear heavy costs and often lose Customs Union markets.” He specified the RF government’s decree, according to which, the Russian market was shut down for the Belarusian agricultural products. Of course, in his candid observations, the Deputy Prime Minister did not reach to the point to categorically rejects the Customs Union, but he also expressed an opinion that it is still possible to correct the mistake in developing common rules for production and marketing the products in the territory of the Customs Union.
Interestingly, one of the ways to solve the problem, Semashko considers joining the World Trade Organization. The Deputy Prime Minister said that they could not even provide this year’s economic growth by 8.5 percent. Aravot.am asked the director of “Political Economy” Institute whether the abovementioned constitute a danger to us with regard to joining the Customs Union. Mr. Tevanyan answered, “It is hard to assess the risks not, because there is no common agreement, nor we have entered into the Customs Union. But, there is Serzh Sargsyan’s and Tigran Sargsyan’s decision. We need to direct these questions to them.” To our clarifying questions whether the decision to join the Customs Union, in fact, was made only by Serge Sargsyan and Tigran Sargsyan, Mr. Tevanyan responded, “This was Serzh Sargsyan’s personal decision. I think no one among the formal circles of Armenia knows what awaits him in the Customs Union. I can not exactly say as to what issues Belarus has put forward, and what it faces, but, in general, a political decision has been made, the assessments should be political, the current authorities should give answers to all questions.”
To our question whether he supports Armenia’s joining the Customs Union, Mr. Tevanyan answered, “Were we asked about it? There is no question of expressing pro or cons to the Customs Union. I think that it would be good for Armenia to maintain equal distance, a balanced policy with the EU and RF. For us, neither signing the EU Association Agreement, not joining the Customs Union was beneficial to us. Now, this chance is gone, Serzh Sargsyan has completely put Armenia into a situation that has deprived Armenia of the opportunity to make decisions. It is specifically the issue of his political responsibility, and those pro-Western players were just engaged in tiny political cheating.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
