Russia and Belarus Have No Time to Settle Issues of Mutual Trade :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus has doubts that Belarusian-Russian agreement on mutual trade could be signed on March 1, Interfax informs. This date was stated by mass media previously, but now it is unlikely. As said by the source, the agreement is being considered by the both governments, that is why it is impossible to cite its contents. However, the text of the agreement hasn’t been agreed upon by the sides yet.

A variant of the text exists, which had been approved by Russian government as a ground for negotiations. However, Belarus does not have it still. The Belarusian side’s offer to correct the agreement hasn’t been answered by the Russian side either. In this connection it is “too optimistic” to speak about sighing the document.

Besides, Belarusian government notes that since the draft agreement’s initialling in Moscow in the middle of January, “the situation has scientifically changed”, and many clauses of the treaty have become out of date.

In particular, a number of stipulations in the draft agreement, for instance on settling the issue of Belarusian sugar deliveries to Russian market, haven’t been decided upon. There are a few more problems the sides are not ready to solve by a specified date. That is why besides amendments in the contents and sense, correction of previously fixed terms and solving of some problems could be required when preparing the final version of the agreement,” a source in the government said.

The Belarusian side also brings to notice that in the framework of the document drafting an issue of Russian cigarettes’ access to Belarusian market is considered as well. “However, this issue shouldn’t be solved to the detriment of economic interest of Belarus,” the source said.