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Duma may ratify free trade zone agreement March 20

The agreement will substitute the current agreements between the CIS states on free trade

MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) —— The State Duma’s committee on CIS and compatriots recommended ratifying the agreement on a free trade zone.

Head of the committee Leonid Slutsky said the issue may be on the agenda of the State Duma’s session on March 20.

“This is a most important agreement for the entire economic integration in the CIS for years ahead,” he said. The document is positively different from a similar agreement of 1993, which had not been ratified, he said.

Slutsky added that the agreement will provide necessary conditions for effective zone of free trade in the CIS and favourable conditions for further development of integration on the basis of the norms of the WTO.

“The major difference of the agreement from present agreements is the instrument of constraint to follow obligations for sides violating terms. This instrument is in rules for settling disputes,” he said.

The agreement also has provisions, which guarantee non-discriminative use of non-tariff regulations, and clear rules of subsiding used in international practice.

The agreement will substitute the current agreements between the CIS states on free trade.

The agreement was signed on October 18, 2011 by Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine in St. Petersburg.