OREANDA-NEWS. September 10, 2010. Belarus hopes the package of documents to establish the common economic area of the Customs Union will be completed by January 1, 2011, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Yevdochenko said.

“We would like to complete this work by January 1, 2010, and we saw that our Russian and Kazakhstan counterparts have the same intention,” Yevdochenko said.

The Belarusian side does not believe there are any reasons for delays.

He admitted that the degree of completion of some documents included in the package varied. “Some crucial agreements have been reached, for instance, on technical regulations. We have coordinated the draft agreement on uniform principles of technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures. This seemed impossible two years ago,” he said.

“We have also reached progress in our labor migration agreements. We are close to reaching agreements on regulatory acts pertaining to natural monopolies and competition. Also, we have made good progress in our talks on the draft agreement on industrial subsidies,” he said.