Trade Policy Regimes

World-wide international economic policies during the last few decades have been exhibiting a rising interest towards regional integration in various new forms and diversity. Not only has the number of regional integration arrangements expanded, but, even more strikingly, their scope and depth have advanced in a spectacular manner. The establishment of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (RBK-CU) in 2010 and its subsequent evolution into the Single Economic Space (SES) in 2012 represents a prominent current example of the regional economic integration in northern Eurasia. Authorities in the RBK-CU/SES envisage deepening this regional integration even further with the intention of establishing on their bases the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, in particular Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, also expressed an interest in joining these integration arrangements.  

Research and expert communities are now challenged to provide solid, independent and comprehensive support to policy-making on plausible future scenarios and optimal schemes of economic integration within the EAEU, and also between the EAEU and its strategic partners, notably the EU. 

The workshop is expected to discuss:

• Current trade conditions within the RBK-CU, between the RBK-CU/SES/EAEU and other CIS countries, between the RBK-CU/SES/EAEU and the EU and also between the RBK-CU/SES/EAEU and their partners in the east (notably, China, Japan, Korea);
• EU’s practice of cooperating with its Eastern and Mediterranean neighborhoods;
• Opportunities and implications of other integration arrangements and processes, including SCO FTA, EU-India FTA, NAFTA-EU FTA, trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific trade and investment agreements, as well as status of trade activity within other international associations (e.g., ASEAN, EFTA, the League of Arab States, CEFTA, etc.);
• Possible scenarios of future trade between the above mentioned regions and countries in a longer term perspective focusing on selected sectors (manufacturing, network services, energy, agri-food and financial services); points of growth; potential liberalization measures; areas of convergence of economic interests and areas of disagreement; compliance with the WTO rules, etc;
• Specific issues of compatibility of simultaneous participation of a country in various integration processes (e.g., Serbia with its FTA with Russia and provisioned plans to enter the EU, Ukraine’s DCFTA with the EU and economic ties with CIS countries); and objectives and first attempts of the RBK-CU to enter preferential trade regimes with partners outside its immediate vicinity, such as Vietnam, Israel and New Zealand. 

Last edited: 24 August 2018