Belarus’ Deputy PM: out of 37 barriers to CIS mutual trade, 28 were removed

Removing trade barriers within the CIS became one of the main topics for discussion during the CIS Economic Council in Moscow today – as noted by Belarus’ Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko

He said that in total, the parties considered about 20 issues dealing with the CIS functioning, particularly, the results of implementing Belarus’ initiative aimed to remove obstacles to mutual trade between the CIS member states.

“[After the decision to implement this initiative], the relevant decisions of the CIS, the CIS Heads of Government Council were adopted, and a high-level group was established, which reported relevant information today. Out of the 37 barriers that the CIS members have identified during the work of this group, 28 have been removed. The remaining obstacles are being worked out, and there are trends towards their removal. This contributes to the fact that mutual trade turnover within the CIS will increase and the interaction between the countries will expand, including taking into account the entry into force of the CIS agreement on free trade in services,” the Deputy PM underlined.

Igor Petrishenko also added that the aforementioned agreement on the formation of a free trade zone in services in the CIS has been ratified by three states, with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan also completing this process.