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Belarus advocates non-discriminatory approaches to pricing on EAEU common energy markets

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MINSK, 4 December (BelTA) - Belarus advocates non-discriminatory approaches to pricing on the common energy markets of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Belarus Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said at a videoconference meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on 4 December, BelTA has learned.

“Work continued this year on the formation of the common energy and transport markets of the EAEU, without which real economic integration is impossible. Completion of the work to develop these markets should be associated with ensuring non-discriminatory approaches to pricing, tariffs and access to services of natural monopolies,' Roman Golovchenko noted.

According to the prime minister, this year the union has actively worked to remove barriers in the domestic market of the EAEU. During the year their number decreased from 19 to 11. “But new ones are emerging. This is why this topic remains on our agenda. We will review the list of exemptions and restrictions and instruct our government bodies and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) to eliminate them in 2021-2022. I hope that this work will be carried out more actively than before,” the Belarusian head of government noted.

Roman Golovchenko is confident that, taking advantage of the EAEU, the member states will be back on track of economic growth next year.

The Belarusian prime minister drew the EEC's attention to the need to intensify international work, primarily to align the EAEU with the Belt and Road initiative. "This will help us improve the efficiency of freight and passenger traffic, as customs controls and a number of other procedures will be eased, which will eventually lead to lower costs for business," he explained.

Belarus believes that the implementation of the memorandum of deeper cooperation between the CIS Executive Committee and the Eurasian Economic Commission needs to be accelerated. Belarus is set to focus on this issue during its presidency in the CIS in 2021 and is looking forward to the support from Kazakhstan as the presiding country in the EAEU. Belarus also hopes that the memorandum between the EAEU and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be signed soon.

Roman Golovchenko also supported granting an observer status to Uzbekistan and Cuba and suggested working out special cooperation programs with the EAEU states-observers.

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