... Customs Union. We met with Aza Migranyan, PhD in Economics, Head of Economics Department at the CIS Institute, to discuss Armenia's economic potential within the Transcaucasian environment, as well as economic and energy relations between Armenia and Russia.
In 2013, Armenia announced its willingness to become a member of the Customs Union. Does this desire arise mostly from security or economy considerations?
The decision appears fully based on economic, economic security and national security concerns, three issues that are inseparably linked. As a matter of fact, these ...
... in the thick of the geo-economic confrontation between the two trade areas, closing in on it from either side. Although the Customs Union is a new and institutionally weak grouping, it is clear that an attempt at reformatting the economic space could ... ... expansion. It should be noted that at the heart of the Ukrainian crisis lay not the territorial differentiation of the country, the Russian language law, corruption among Yanukovych administration officials, or even economic stagnation, but the decision to suspend ...
... ambitions.
In recent years, Russia has worked to set up the Eurasian Union in order to somewhat counterbalance the EU and Eurointegration, aiming to have two centers of political and economic influence in the region. This logic holds that the future of the Customs Union is a vital issue for Russia, which might use this emerging instrument to reinstate its leadership in the post-Soviet space. This is why Moscow did not hesitate to engage Armenia in the Customs Union despite the absence of a common border between Armenia and CU countries, ...
... long been promising everything and doing nothing’. It has been known that Mr Yanukovych is no fan of the democratic control an association with the EU would mean, but that he likes the political and economic independence that membership of the Russian-led Customs Union would put at an even bigger risk. It has seemed likely – and I myself argued so in a post published here in March this year – that he will therefore aim to maintain the status quo, the non-aligned stance as long as financially ...
... with the conclusions by Lithuanian experts
[8]
"on competition rather than their harmonization of the two alternative integration spaces seen as integration hubs."
A Proposal That One Cannot Refuse
Notably, competition between the EU and the Customs Union initially was not an imperative. Russia's neighbors have been offered the Eastern Partnership as a proposal "one cannot refuse," suggesting an inevitable rejection of the eastward integration vector. The results are deplorable, as Minsk and Yerevan have actually dropped the ...
... post-Soviet space, which gave rise to certain dichotomy of interests. But in recent years, Moscow has stepped up its integration efforts and presented clear-cut cooperation priorities. The Eurasian Economic Community platform was used to establish the Customs Union (CU) of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan; the creation of the Common Economic Space (CES) is underway; the creation of a supranational Eurasian Economic Commission is in progress; and plans for establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union are in the making. These ...
... Center for Social and Economic Research, 2012. Available on-line: http://www.case-research.eu/en/node/57857
[8] Veronika Movchan and Ricardo Giucci: Quantitative Assessment of Ukraine’s Regional Integration Options: DCFTA with European Union vs. Customs Union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Berlin/Kyiv: Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting. November 2011. Available on-line: http://www.ier.com.ua/files/publications/Policy_papers/German_advisory_group/2011/PP_05_2011_eng.pdf
[9] Movchan and ...
... common market for goods, capital and labor that has a single customs and tariff policy. The union proclaims to have an open-door policy, primarily for Ukraine, whose transportation, energy and other infrastructures are still tightly linked to both nearby Russia and Belarus and distant Kazakhstan.
Photo: RIA Novosti
Customs Union
Geared at fewer political commitments with higher quality economic ties, the CES-CU project is not problem-free. Decisions involve dozens and sometimes hundreds of approvals (although the EU seems to require more). Members’ mutual ...
Ukraine’s foreign policy towards its Eastern and Western neighbours could ultimately lead to broader international consequences that one would expect. Its decision to sign the Association agreement with the European Union or joining the Customs Union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, might take the story of one of the sides much deeper than to wider economic cooperation, trade or visa liberalization. European Ukraine Approach of the European Union can be perceived as very ambiguous and caught in a circle....
