The topic of “Face to Face” series of talk show of “Aravot” online is discussed by economists Vahagn Khachatryan and Ashot Yeghiazaryan
Aram Abrahamyan – Apart from politics, what does the Eurasian Economic Union mean? What does the Customs Union mean? And what is the difference between them?
Vahagn Khachatryan – There are different levels: free trade, customs union, economic union, monetary union, and ultimately the countries are combining their economic policy. The second level is the Customs Union, the third one is the Eurasian Economic Union. Under the Customs Union, we just agree to maintain the borders due to high or lower customs rates, and usually with high customs rates, we trying to promote local products between the Customs Union member states to withstand the competition of imported products. During the Eurasian Economic Union, the customs border will not function, rather than 4 important factors were published there: free mobility of labor, free mobility of capital, trade and services. In other words, our citizens who have worked in the Eurasian Economic Union, will no longer have problems. The labor rules that are operating in Armenia should also function in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. A new definition of common rules of tax legislation begins. For instances, today, we have some advantage from our future partner countries, because our tax environment is quite milder than of Russia and Belarus.
A. A. – But businesses do not feel that it is milder.
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V. Kh. – It is clear because our businesses do not understand what policy we are conducting. But in comparison, we are trying to understand our advantages, we have such an advantage, that in many cases, the state officials were not even hiding that by accession to Customs Union or the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia will have the opportunity to ensure a ratio of investments here by taking the advantage of its tax benefits and economic environment. This is also from the series of fairy tales. Actually, Armenia’s problem is not the economic environment.
A. A – Is it possible that we would not join the Customs Union, but the Eurasian Union?
Ashot Yeghiazaryan – No, it’s not quite like that, although it seems like such an impression exists. These are various levels of alleged economic project, due to the fact that Russia is also trying to employ the European experience in its base, which, according to the balance, suggested five levels of integration, moreover, the Eurasian Economic Union is considered to be a higher level than the Customs Union. But being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union already means that you have also accepted the rules of the game by the Custom Union, in other words, if the rules of the game by the Custom Union, being a level lower, regulate the general customs policy in these integrated territory, then the Eurasian Economic Union implies a different, apart from the Customs, agreement of other policies in the economic industry.
A. A. – This has been talk a lot in this studio that the previous government was negotiating, at the time it was still the Customs Union, about 800 nominal products, on which the customs duties are lower here than there. It was about exceptions for some products. What happened to these negotiation?
A. E. – I, naturally, am not aware of the negotiations, but I do not think that the exceptions, so to speak, will be on a large scale, in the meantime, I still do not think that this process can be resolved at least in the next few months, both technically and by influence of many other factors. In short, I do not tend to think that it will happen very fast during this month. We should note that even in the trio, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Russia, has exceptions within its circles, i.e., it is not so that they be agreeing on customs rates for all products. There are also exceptions, including about the fuel and energy sector, which, naturally, does not incur from Russia’s interests. But when we are talking about this integration project, Eurasian Union and Customs Union, today we should rather talk about only the Customs Union, because only the Customs Union exists in reality.
Prepared by ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
“Face to Face” talk show series are released by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia. The views and analyzes found in this broadcast express the opinions of the participants, and are not approved by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, or its Board. This broadcast is made available thanks to comprehensive financial support by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, under the mass media support program, grant No 18624.
