Ukraine considers joining Russian-backed customs union
By Aynur Jafarova
Ukraine should consider adaptation of laws to some norms of the Customs Union (CU), comprising Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which would not contradict Ukrainian international obligations, President Victor Yanukovych said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine newspaper published on Friday.
Yanukovych said ideas on the adaptation of domestic legislation were to be ready on December 18, but experts had failed to agree on all aspects of signing agreements with Russia, therefore, the visit of Yanukovych to Moscow has been postponed.
The president noted that Ukraine is interested in cooperation with the CU member states.
"The CU member states are important export markets for Ukrainian goods and the trade turnover of Ukraine with this organization exceeds $60 billion," Yanukovych added.
In May 2011, Yanukovych stated that Ukraine is "searching for mechanisms of cooperation that will allow us to work with the Customs Union which Ukrainian laws and our obligations to world organizations allow". According to him, Ukraine may potentially join the Customs Union in the future, but the country's Constitution currently does not allow that.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Ukraine's cooperation with the Customs Union is not a political issue and is based on economic expediency, Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency reported in December.
"For our economy it is vital to agree with and interact with the CU member states, and there is absolutely no politics involved here. But when political speculations begin over this, [with some saying that] you want to join the Customs Union but not the European Union, this is no good for our country. I have always been against such comparisons. [But] in both cases we are guided by economic interests."
Valery Muntiyan, the Ukrainian governmental envoy for cooperation with Russia, the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Community member states, said that Ukraine may join the protocol on the formation of the Customs Union in July 2013.
Ukraine, which has declared a strategic course toward European integration, plans to sign an association agreement with the EU at the end of 2013. At the same time, Kiev has announced its aim to join some regulations of the CU. Moscow has offered Kiev to join the CU, promising in return to supply energy resources for concessional prices. The Ukrainian government proposes cooperation with the union in a "three plus one" format, i.e. involving Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan plus Ukraine.