Will Belarus get into free trade zone with EU?

The European Union is ready to sign agreements on creating free trade zones with the countries-participants of the Eastern Partnership program as soon as they are prepared for it. Also, they are supposed to fulfill all the necessary terms and conditions. Moreover, the European Union is ready to grant total freedom to entrepreneurs in the service sector. This was stated by  the head of  the European Commission Representation in Poland Ewa Synowiec at the conference "Eastern Partnership: Strategy for 2011 and Beyond" in Lublin.  

Ewa Synowiec: “We are ready to offer, in the first place, total freedom to organization of firms at the territory of the EU. We also prescribe to provide the 100% access to the EU markets in some sectors and with regard to certain types of services. However, in this case the partner states will have to accept and adapt the European Union's regulations. It is important to understand that the market of financial services is approached in this very way”.

This means, the whole legislation of the partner states should correspond with the EU's legislation. Let us remind you, six countries participate in the "Eastern Partneship" program: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

If the EU has started talking about the "total freedom for organization of firms" just recently, free trade zones have been discussed since a long time ago. However, Belarus has no chance to participate thereof yet. There are two reasons for that, says Ewa Synowiec. First, all the trade in the EU is regulated by WTO's legal frames. Belarus is not the WTO member, and this makes it impossible to legalize relations between our country and the EU in the sphere of trade. In addition to that, Belarus has not even expressed any interest to the suggestion to create a free trade zone, while other countries make so many efforts to realise this EU's project. Ukraine, for instance, is very close to creating such a zone.

Ewa Synowiec: “As for Belarus, we haven't even discussed the possibility of negotiations with regard to variants of an agreement. We haven't even ratified the agreement on partnership and cooperation”.

The agreement, besides, was prepared in the early 90s of the previous century. However, the Belarusian side failed to sign it. 

It may seem possible to live and trade successfully without these agreeements. According to the official data, Belarus' trade with the EU makes 40% of our country's foreign trade. However, an economist Aliaksandr Chubryk warns not to be overexcited in this regard.

Aliaksandr Chubryk : “Apart from Ukraine and Georgia, all the partner states have approximately 42-43% of trade with the EU. However, if we exclude oil and oil products, we'll see that the share of export to the EU of, for instance, Belarus and Azerbaijan, considerably decreases”.

In case our country suddenly loses an opportunity to sell energy products to the EU in the same scope as before, then our "big" trade with the West will become just a faint memory.

The expert of the Belfast Royal University Alena Hnezdzina commented upon this prognosis and noted  that the "free trade zone agreement" not only provides an opportunity to increase the trade scopes. It stimulates economic reforms in the first place, which would lead to life level increase by 4% in a very short period of time, according to the specialists' calculations.

Euroradio has asked the experts whether Belarus' membership in the Customs Union will create obstacles on its way to such economic European integration. To the opinion of Aliaksandr Chubryk, we should better think of how long this Customs Union will exist.

Aliaksandr Chubryk: “Belarus has not acquired what it wanted to acquire with the help of the Customs Union. That is, cheap energy products. We don't have them. So now it is obvious that if we become a member of a free trade zone, we will get much more advantages than if we remain in the Customs Union. So it seems to me the existense of the Customs Union is not such a big problem today”.

Poland's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs reminded, in his turn, that his country would be the EU President in 2011. He promised that Poland would do everything to involve Belarus into the European integration processes. The most important thing is that there should be a correspondent political will of the official Minsk.