NCE together with EEC held a round table on the theme "Participation of the business community to identify obstacles at the internal market of EAEU"

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman of NCE RK "Atameken" Dana Zhunusova with the participation of members of the Board, the Minister for Internal Market, Information, Information and Communication Technologies of the Eurasian Economic Commission Karine Minasyan.

Today, there are many obstacles for the business communities of the Eurasian Economic Union to make full use of all the advantages and opportunities offered by the single market of goods, services, capital and labor.

"Communication with the business for us is a matter of principle, and we learn about the real problems directly from the business, when you get the information about the problems that concern the business and you really know on what to put emphasis in your work", - said Karine Minasyan, speaking at the meeting.

Deputy Chairman of NCE RK "Atameken" Dana Zhunusova, in turn, noted that many of the issues of Kazakhstani entrepreneurs have not been resolved for years. "These are problems with transit, with the agreement on navigation, excise taxes, access to the market of alcoholic beverages. We fully understand the price of each of our question. We can digitize loss for each barrier, which I name",- she said.

Director of the Department of economic integration Dolores Tyulebekova reported about barriers of access to Russian ports, which exist since 2013. "The Treaty of the Union stipulates that we have equal access to port services. Our export-oriented enterprises on coal production send their products through non-CIS countries, through the Far Eastern Russian ports. We ship 4 million tons of coal eac year, but the potential is up to 8-11 million tons. Our companies have limited opportunities for subjective reasons. We recently addressed this issue in the EEC",

Earlier, the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs also appealed to the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, on the basis of which information is received that the necessary document in the form of a Regulation on non-discriminatory access to the ports, is introduced for the consideration of the Russian Government.

However, the body issuing the opinion on the regulatory impact assessment, has not confirmed the information about submission of the draft rules to the government, as a consequence, the adoption of the document to address this problematic issue, is delayed for the third year.

Executive Director of the Association of Legal Entities "Association of Entrepreneurs of maritime transport" Nikolai Yudin told about the problem of lack of access to the inland waterways of the Russian Federation. This issue is discussed since 2008, we had already had to sign a document, which would provide transit passage from the Caspian Sea via Russian Volgodonsk channel to the ports of the Black Sea on the basis of the simplified notification regime.

However, in view of the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, it was decided to develop a five-sided document, providing transit passage on the basis of the notification. Despite the fact that the plan for development of acts in the Union stipulates the deadline until - December 2015, the document was not adopted yet.

"It is worth noting that last year the Russian side during the procedure of internal approval introduced comments regarding the definition of a simplified licensing procedure for the passage of vessels, - said Dana Zhunusova. - However, even with the consent of the Kazakh side to these proposals, the document is not accepted yet".

The roundtable was also touched upon the issues of access to alcoholic market of the Union.

"Unequal conditions were created on the territory of the Member States of EAEU. Kazakhstan, in accordance with the principles of CU, from 1^st of July 2010 has removed all barriers to Russian, Belarusian alcoholic beverages. Before the creation of the CU, the import of vodka to Kazakhstan amounted to no more than 10%, it reaches 40% today. At the same time, there are reciprocal steps from Russia and Belarus. They do the opposite: for example, the Russian Federation in the same 2010 introduced a security deposit, the amount of which is 3 times higher than the cost of most of imported products. The Belarusian side in 2011 introduced a system of import quotas for which importation is permitted only to those types of alcoholic beverages, which they do not produce. We are raising this question, since 2011. For 6 years, the agreement on the free circulation of alcohol on the territory of the EAEU is still prepared", - he said.

In addition, according to Kaliev, for three years another agreement on the harmonization of excise rates is still adopted, which have been developed on the initiative of Russia. "They have set the condition that we raise the excise tax to their level. Today we have fully complied with the requirements of the Russian side, and our partners in the EAEU do not adopt specific measures", - he said.

The head of Alocohol Association noted that in this situation there is an unofficial ban, introduced by the Russian alcohol regulation body, on importation of the Kazakh alcohol and alcoholic beverages.
The representative of "KazATO" Ivan Jansen reported on barriers in the operation of long-distance transport on the territory of the Russian Federation. "All states are called to work on the TIR Carnets, including Russia. However, the vehicles in transit through the Russian Federation are inspected at no reason. This disrupts the work of TIR Carnets, trucks stand idle for 3 to 5 days. Accordingly, Kazakhstan carriers incur additional costs. They are very tangible and ultimately affect the price of the goods", - he said.

They also addressed the issue of barriers set by Kyrgyzstan. In November 2016, the Kyrgyz Republic, referring to information from unofficial sources on the outbreak of bird flu in Kazakhstan, has banned the import of poultry meat and eggs.
Currently, NCE has already received an appeal from LLP "Kazger-Kus" to close the border. "If we talk about the losses, it is about one third of total exports of food eggs, that is about 45-50 mln. pieces or 1.5-2 billion tenge. We believe that it is illegal", - said Deputy Director of the Department of Agribusiness and Food Industry of NCE Yerbol Eseneev.

In addition, on 26^th of  January 2016, Kyrgyzstan adopted a law under which the wheat is imported into the Republic is exempt from VAT. Accordingly, the flour produced from this wheat is also exempt from VAT. "This measure is aimed at developers plan to support the Kyrgyz millers in order to compete with Kazakhstan and reduce imports of flour from Kazakhstan. In the end it turned out that Kyrgyzstan because of this lost about 655 soms per year. Local wheat became more expensive than Kazakhstani, and even reduction of crop is observed this year. Now the Kyrgyz side understands that they have done something not: Millers were supported, but farmers were harmed. I have the impression that they need to act externally, that the measure has been limited. Over the past 5 years, the volume of deliveries of Kazakh flour to Kyrgyzstan decreased by 5 times ", - said President of the Union of Grain Processors and Bakers of Kazakhstan Gan Evgeni Albertovich.

Other topical issues of concern to our countries’ business were discussed during the round table. The results of the round table have shown that barriers there are many problems for the domestic business and it gives importance to such events.

Karine Minasyan has promised that the most important issues will be discussed at the Intergovernmental meeting on 7^th of March. In turn, the Chamber will send a consolidated list of domestic business barriers to the authorized state body of RK for transfer to the Commission.

"The current international practice allows us to observe that in the modern world, both in life and in business, it is very important to have the feeling of support, the possibility of mutual support and teamwork. Therefore, we need to combine our efforts and develop joint measures to minimize the barriers for business development of the countries of the Union", - said in the conclusion Dana Zhunusova.

"Atameken" hopes that similar events will be really effective tool in the settlement of urgent business problems, removal of which is the key to a significant increase in EAEU countries' economies, and another step towards rapprochement of our countries.

In turn, the Department of Economic Integration reminds that staff of the Department on a regular basis carries out monitoring of problematic issues, systemic barriers and other restrictions under the EAEU, arising among domestic business in cooperation with our partners in the Union.
In the case of restrictions of this kind, please contact the DEI NCE RK "Atameken" by phone 919 373 or send your appeal to the e-mail: dei@palata.kz.