MINSK, April 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's industry and energy minister said Friday that a customs union being created by some post-Soviet states would only start work in two or three years' time.
"Launching the Customs Union to the full will take at least two or three years," said Viktor Khristenko, currently in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to finalize the first 38-agreement package laying the groundwork for the first stage of a common economic space between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Khristenko said the agreements could be signed in May, adding that he regretted Ukraine would not sign the entire package and therefore not join the union. Ukraine, which is completing World Trade Organization accession talks, has said it will sign 11 of the 38 agreements.
"This means there will be no additional impetus to the development" of the mooted Common Economic Space encompassing the countries, Khristenko said.
Russia has recently renewed its interest in the project, which had stalled over member-states' conflicting interests.
Igor Kirsanov, an expert at the Eurasia Legacy Foundation, said that Russia's stalled WTO accession talks, which like Russian officials he pinned on the United States, might be an additional incentive for the country to focus on the CES.
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, the largest nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose union of former Soviet republics, announced an agreement in principle to create the CES on February 23, 2003.
The CES is designed to ensure free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. The customs union is expected to advance the process and ultimately abolish national tariffs, as well as introducing common customs tariffs and common non-tariff tools to regulate trade with non-member countries.
