Azerbaijan, Baku, April 15/Trend, V. Zhavoronkova
Kyrgyzstan's membership in the Customs Union (CU) may negatively affect general situation in the country in long-term future, according to Bruce Pannier, US expert on Central Asia.
On Tuesday, the Government of Kyrgyzstan approved the composition of an interdepartmental commission to be responsible for the country's joining the CU and the Common economic space. Kyrgyz PM Almazbek Atambayev says the country plans to join the Common economic space on January 1, 2012 and remain a World Trade Organization (WTO) member state.
In the view of the expert, joining the CU may have positive consequences for Kyrgyzstan such as getting access to purchase of cheaper goods, particularly, gasoline prices and core food prices may be reduced.
"However, the younger generation tends to regard CU membership as a certain loss of the country's independence", Pannier e-mailed Trend.
According to him, PM Almazbek Atambayev communicates joining the CU as the necessity and says extremely negative consequences for Kyrgyzstan will become possible otherwise.
"I think, Kyrgyzstan will find a difficulty in receiving new credits from Russia if it does not make efforts to join the Customs Union", said Pannier.
However, joining the CU may also be fraught with negative consequences for Kyrgyzstan, according to him.
"The membership most likely will be useful over a short-term period but may complicate a number of internal factors over a longer period", the analyst believes.
As to the internal factors, Pannier means Kyrgyzstan's domestic policy, foreign trade with potential partners, and the process of receipt of foreign investments.
According to the Ministry of Economic Regulation of Kyrgyzstan, the turnover of trade with the CU member states amounted to $2.238 billion last year, up 8.4 percent from 2009. In 2010, the export and the import amounted to over $715 million (up 27.8 percent) and $1.522 billion (up 1.2 percent), respectively.
CU member states cover 44.9 percent of Kyrgyzstan's foreign trade and 40.6 percent and 47.2 percent, respectively, of its export and import. Keeping the biggest shares in Kyrgyzstan's trade turnover are Russia (26.9 percent) and Kazakhstan (16.8 percent) with Belarus covering just 1.2 percent.
The Customs Union is the interstate agreement of establishment of a common customs space Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed. The agreement entered into force in July 2010.
