YEREVAN, March 13, /ITAR-TASS/. Armenian specialists will help draft the Customs Code of the Customs Union created by Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, the Armenian government said on Thursday, March 13, after talks between Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and Eurasian Economic Commission Board member Vladimir Goshin.

Sargsyan and Goshin discussed customs legislation and cooperation during Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union. Goshin told Sargsyan about the work on the Customs Code to be put into effect next year.

In September 2013, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan “reaffirmed Armenia’s wish to accede to the Customs Union and join in the process of forming the Eurasian Economic Union.”

Armenia may join the Customs Union in 2014, Viktor Khristenko, chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission’s Board, said last week 6.

“I think the accession of Armenia will be legally formalised in 2014,” Khristenko said.

Preliminary results of implementation by Armenia of the roadmap for accession to the Customs Union were reported to the presidents of the member states at a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Commission on March 5.

“Over the two months that have passed since the December summit, and we can say that Armenia has made great headway in implementing the roadmap ahead of schedule. I feel optimistic about the possibility and ability of Armenia to implement the 260-point roadmap and the amount of work to be done before admission,” Khristenko said.

The Customs Union between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan was established on December 19, 2009, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the leaders of the three states - Dmitry Medvedev, Alexander Lukashenko, and Nursultan Nazarbayev - signed the Joint Statement on its founding. The first phase of the Customs Union’s functioning began on January 1, 2010, with the introduction of a uniform customs tariff.

The Customs Union’s highest bodies are the Interstate Councils of the heads of states and governments of its members. Its joint permanent governing body is the Customs Union Commission.

The Customs Union formation envisages creation of a common customs territory where no customs duties or economic restrictions will apply, save for special protective, anti-dumping and compensatory measures. Within the Customs Union, a uniform customs tariff and other uniform measures regulating the commodity trade with third nations will be applied.

The Eurasian Economic Commission is a supranational body of the Common Economic Space created by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The Common Economic Space has been operating since the start of 2012. A supranational regulatory body - the Eurasian Economic Commission - has been created and has become operational. It will take over the function of further deepening of integration.

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Commission on November 18, 2011. The Commission started working on January 1, 2012.

The Commission coordinates integration processes within the Customs Union and the Unified Economic Space.

The Commission has a Council made up of deputy prime ministers, which will carry out overall supervision of integration processes, and a Board, a working body to which all member states will delegate their representatives.