Eurasian Economic Union Agrees Unified Customs Transit System With Third Countries

The Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which oversees legislation on behalf of the Eurasian Economic Union, (EAEU) has signed an agreement on a Unified Customs Transit System between the EAEU and third countries. The agreement is important as it reduces transport costs from the EAEU to its major trading partners.

The agreement defines the legal framework for the organisation of rapid logistics with other countries. It is expected that in practice it will start working from April, when a new form of the unified transit declaration will be introduced. This will speed up the delivery of goods, reduce business costs and minimize risks along transportation routes.

The EAEU includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. It has Free Trade Agreements with Iran, Serbia and Vietnam, and a flexible, non-preferential FTA with China. Several other counties, including Egypt, India and Indonesia, are currently negotiating FTA with the EAEU. These new standards will help with their eventual customs implementation with EAEU imports and exports.

The EAEU press service said that Uzbekistan is interested in the mechanism, while it is expected that other CIS and Asian countries will join the system, including China.

The Unified Customs Transit System provides a single form of transit declaration, and applies standardized rules to pay customs duties and taxes, harmonizes customs control, and digitizes the translation of required documents.

For example, the system involves the use of electronic navigation seals, which, allows online tracking of cargo, and contains all the required information about its transport, simplifying border crossings.

Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the Chairman of the EEC, said that “An agreement has been signed on a Unified Customs Transit System of the Eurasian Economic Union and third parties. It provides an opportunity for other states to join the EAEU transit system. The beneficiaries of the project will be Central Asia, China and our other trading partners. The key objective of the agreement is to ensure seamless transportation by increasing connectivity between territories and reducing business overhead costs for cargo delivery. The adoption of the system contributes to the development of the transit potential of the Union, improves the security of cross-border supplies and increases trade turnover among the EAEU countries.”