Eurasian Economic Union to cooperate with China

From left: Presidents of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russia Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev and Chairperson of Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sarkisian pose for a photo in Astana, Kazakstan, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. Putin meets in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, with the leaders of other former Soviet states that are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, which in addition to Russia and Kazakhstan includes Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.(Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

China and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) will create trade cooperation for interests of the EEU members.

EEU Supreme Council meeting was held in Kazakhstan on May 31. Member states discussed the new cooperation with regional countries.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said “It would be great to sign particular documents within two years,” he said, adding that “this is a challenging negotiation process”, TASS reports.

He told that China is ready for economic cooperation with the Union, “However, we initially said that the EurAsEC (Eurasian Economic Community) and China would create such a trade and economic partnership. This is more about the rules of the game regarding the development of free flows of goods and services as well as protection of investment in this huge area. We also discussed with China the possibility of creating a free trade zone between SCO countries and China, which surely implies reduced tariffs or even slashed to zero common customs tariffs on Chinese goods supplied to Russia and other countries.”

According to Shuvalov, a decision has been made to balance flows of commodities for all producers to be on an equal footing.