The experts discussed the problems of Kazakhstani business in the EAEU on the Atameken platform.

Entrepreneurs were able to address their problematic issues to the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov and a member of the Collegium (Minister) of the Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation Block of the EEC Serik Zhumangarin. Also, EEC representatives gave individual consultations on the issues.

Evgeniy Bolgert, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Atameken NCE RK, in his report focused on the trade turnover within the EAEU. The analyst confirms that Kazakhstan exports many times less than the countries of the Union do, which once again confirms the openness of the Kazakh market for goods from the EAEU countries.

According to Bolgert, the lack of significant growth in exports of Kazakhstani processed products in the EAEU demonstrates the presence of barriers to mutual trade. According to the analysis of integration conducted by the Chamber since 2015, there are a number of barriers that constrain the increase in the supply of Kazakhstani goods to the Union's countries, such as mutual recognition of the digital signature, restriction of access to trade networks in Russia, the minimum level of control prices for imported goods in Kyrgyzstan, etc.

Summing up his speech, Evgeniy Bolgert proposed to implement the initiative of Elbasy - Nursultan Nazarbayev to create a group on rapid response to the barriers arising in the domestic market of the EAEU.

Business participants raised several pressing questions. ArcelorMittal Temirtau faced the problem of exporting goods from Kazakhstan to Ukraine, passing through the territory of the Russian Federation. Due to Russia's restrictions on exporting goods to Ukraine, domestic enterprises cannot export Kazakh coal in full.

"According to my data, to date, such a scheme has been discussed at the level of the Government, if I am not mistaken at the Interstate Commission. All this is due to the sanctions pressure to date, which has been and is, therefore, is applied to quotas for coal transit through the territory of the Russian Federation to Ukraine. I talked to my Russian colleagues, they also have their arguments, they say that even these quotas are not being met today, but this is a separate conversation. It is necessary to decide on the policy on transit," Serik Zhumangarin said.

According to the Chamber, the Russian Federation's restrictions should not apply to goods produced in Kazakhstan and exported to third countries in transit through Russia. Along with restrictions on Kazakhstani exports, the entire cargo entering Kazakhstan through Russia is subject to repeated customs inspections both at entry and exit from Russia, which harms the final cost of freight traffic upwards.

The procedure for exporting dairy products from Kazakhstan to Russia has been made more complicated. Information about cargo should be promptly transferred between the authorized state bodies of Kazakhstan and Russia. However, Kazakh entrepreneurs have to wait at checkpoints until they receive confirmation of the notification of the passage of the controlled cargo. According to Vladimir Kozhevnikov, Executive Director of the Dairy Union of Kazakhstan, vehicles carrying perishable goods have to wait for PPU for up to 8 hours before receiving data on the cargo (Notifications of the passage of controlled cargo), a veterinary certificate of the Russian standard is formed in the Mercury database based on this notification.

 "We have a perishable product with a shelf life of 3-7 days and businessmen stand idle for 6 hours and lose time. For example, DEP LLP of the Kostanay region exports its products to Russia. For export of dairy products to the Russian Federation it is necessary to issue a "veterinary certificate № 4", which is issued for finished products, and then go to Russia. It is necessary to pass several posts and when crossing the Kairak" - "Bugristoye pre-notification points the veterinary inspector of "Rosselkhoznadzor" does not see the passage of the controlled cargo of the company in the system of electronic notification," Vladimir Kozhevnikov said.

This is due to the long scheme of data transfer to the company's pre-notification points of the Russian Federation from the territorial inspection to the checkpoint. It should be noted that if the border crossing falls on a day off, it's impossible to get a notice. Another problem caused by the lack of system integration is the lack of product data. As explained by the director of  Molochny Souz LLP Alexander Kuzlyakin, dairy products are often shipped together with confectionery and, if the list of more than 150-230 items of products veterans enters the data into the database manually.

"We offered the Russian side to bring data on a flash drive from our veterinary service, but this is not allowed by the rules. Both the carriers and the veterinary service of the Russian side are tired," Alexander Kuzlyakin explained.

Chairman of the Board of the Atameken NCE RK AblaY Myrzakhmetov noted that despite the difficulties the issue of lack of integration between the systems remains unclear.

"Many questions arise on border services, certificates, databases. We will collect all the questions raised today and bring them to the First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov. As for information, unfortunately, there is an international agreement, but we see that our entrepreneurs are suffering. It is necessary to try to solve the problem so that the data is brought in an electronic version," Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

A contradictory situation has developed on the use of containers in cargo transportation within the EAEU, complicating the activities of both the carrier and other participants in foreign economic activity. This forces railway carriers to keep additional accounting and control of containers with the risk of violation of international treaties and bringing to administrative responsibility. This issue was raised by representatives of NC "KTZ" JSC.

Another restriction causes difficulties in exporting Kazakh alcoholic beverages to Russia. Russian law introduced a security payment per liter of alcoholic beverages with annual indexation. This amount is 3 to 3.5 times the value of imported products. Not every Kazakhstani company can pay the appropriate amount, which makes it difficult for domestic companies to enter the Russian market.

The second part of the meeting included a meeting of the Public Chamber for Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation of the EEC. Within the framework of the Public Chamber, the EEC representatives told about the rules that exist in the EAEU cross-border markets and about the opportunities for entrepreneurs to apply to the EEC for protection of their interests, as well as holding individual consultations with entrepreneurs.