Belarus doubts necessity of Customs Union if oil duties are preserved

Belarus doubts the necessity of the Customs Union if oil duties are preserved. The Russian oil duty in Belarus contradicts the principles of the signed customs area. BelaPAN reports that the deputy director of the foreign economic affairs department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anton Kudasau has informed about it.
He has reminded that the current oil supplies to Belarus are regulated by the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental protocol signed on January 27, 2010 which legalizes the usage of the duty by Russia. In Kudasau’s opinion, the protocol does not correspond to the legal base of the Customs Union and to the documents adopted by the Presidents of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan in connection with their decision to create a single customs area on July 1, 2010.

In his opinion, it is necessary to conduct trilateral negotiations and create a transparent system of oil export from Russia  to Belarus and Kazakhstan without any customs duties.