Lukashenka set to clash with Moscow at EAEU summit
Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Photo: president.gov.by
Belarus is not going to support the prolongation of the existing distribution of import duties, Alyaksandr Lukashenka announced at a meeting with EAEU heads of state on November 27, BELTA reports.
The issue was discussed at the meeting in Sochi on March 14, the Belarusian President noted. “The state leaders agreed that the Ministers of Finance and you will create a method of distribution of import duties and report the results by December. The suggestion to prolong the term of existing norms is absolutely disadvantageous for Belarus and we have mentioned it many times. We definitely cannot support it,” Lukashenka stressed.
The EAEC import duties are distributed as follows: Armenia – 1.22%, Belarus – 4.56%, Kazakhstan – 7.055%, Kyrgyzstan – 1.9% and Russia – 85.265%. The norms were temporarily introduced when Kyrgyzstan joined. The term was supposed to expire in August 2018. Yet, the member states did not manage to reach an agreement by that time since the statistic information for Kyrgyzstan was still not available. Thus, the state leaders decided to prolong the term until December 31, 2019.
