OREANDA-NEWS. December 1, 2009. All the problem points Belarus had have been addressed during negotiations about the Customs Union, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told media on 1 December.

The Customs Union stands for mutual concessions, mutual support and the huge market. There is nothing to fear, said the head of state.

“The creation of the united customs territory should be complete as from 1 July 2010,” reminded the President. “After that the commission we are setting up will take control over imports”. “Import money is the money for the budget. This is why we took such a scrupulous attitude to it during the talks,” he said.

The President said that Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia have different economies. “We are not that much of competitors. Well, we have MAZ, Russia has KamAZ. It means that we should protect the domestic manufacturer with duties and so on. Kazakhstan doesn’t have such manufacturers but they joined us. We don’t produce cars but Russia does. Russia would like to protect these enterprises. If we do favors for Russians, then Russians will do favors for us in other areas and so on,” said the President.

Yet he said that car duties are a sensitive issue for the Belarusian economy, this is why no final decision has been made yet. “We put it aside as far as natural persons are concerned. We are talking about juridical persons. Cars are actually the only point that people are truly worried about,” said the head of state. He remarked: “If we import less second-hand garbage here, there is nothing to fear. We will win other points”.

The Customs Union is being created for the people “because it will be easier for MAZ, BelAZ and other companies to work without barriers on this huge market,” stressed Alexander Lukashenko.

He said that the Customs Union topic was touched upon as he met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on 30 November. “As soon as we inked the Customs Union papers, Berlusconi saw not a 10 million strong Belarus, but the huge economic space that can be accessed via Belarus,” said the President. “Which way do they want to access this space? Belarus. Not Russia or Kazakhstan, but here, the center of Europe,” added the President.

“We agreed that they may start manufacturing here, the terms are better here than those in Italy. The workforce cost is different and so on. They may trade wherever they want: both in the European Union and our customs space. Belarus looks even more preferable in this regard than Russia and Kazakhstan,” remarked Alexander Lukashenko.

“Thus the Customs Union that we have created will slightly improve the situation in comparison with the present situation,” concluded the head of state. “It should be understood that without the Customs Union the united economic space will not exist. And it is the thing we are most interested in. In Astana, if we meet on 18 December, we will determine when we reach the united economic space”.

Alexander Lukashenko reminded that the united economic space will remove all economic barriers and thus will address all problems for Belarusian producers. Grounds for trade wars that happen in Belarus-Russia relations will be removed as well. “This way we will return to the huge USSR-scale market through the market economy,” said the Belarusian head of state.

The President also reminded that the three countries had agreed to enter to the WTO together. “We have weighed all pros and cons. Decisions on 600 sensitive issues will be made via consensus, we have arranged it,” he specified.

“We had a sincere talk regarding the creation of the united economic space. We don’t want it to take long. I think we can do it within a year and a half,” concluded Alexander Lukashenko.