From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Oct 11 2000 - 09:55:00 EDT
CIS CUSTOMS UNION STATES CREATE NEW EURASIAN ECONOMIC
UNION
The presidents of the five member states of the CIS
Customs Union (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and
Tajikistan) signed a treaty in Astana on 10 October
establishing a new Eurasian Economic Union on the basis of
the Customs Union, Russian agencies reported. Unlike its predecessor, the
Eurasian Economic Union will be registered with the UN as an
international organization, which means that its decisions
are binding on all participants and take precedence over
international law, according to "Vedomosti" on 11 October.
Those decisions will be reached by a two-thirds majority
vote: Russia will have 40 percent of the vote, Kazakhstan and
Belarus 20 percent, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan 10 percent.
Russian Deputy Premier Viktor Khristenko predicted that the
new Eurasian Economic Union might achieve a common currency
in fewer than the 30 years it took the EEC, on which the new
union is modeled, to do so. Russian President Vladimir Putin
said the new union will not be an exclusively economic body
but will have "social and humanitarian" aspects that he hopes
will bring "positive results for the people." Kazakhstan's
President Nursultan Nazarbaev had outlined such measures,
entitled "Ten Simple Steps Towards Ordinary People," in
January 1998. The five presidents also approved the broad outlines of a five-year
program for restructuring their respective economies,
promoting macro-economic stabilization, improving the
investment climate, and ensuring adequate food supplies for
their populations, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on 11 October.
They further pledged to strengthen controls on their borders,
according to Nazarbaev. LF
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