Medvedev: Customs Union partners “have own drawbacks”

• 25.07.2012, 12:54

The Russian Prime Minister criticized union members.

Russian MP Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with heads of Business Initiative working groups on July 24 that delegating the customs functions to supra-national bodies of the Customs Union was a real problem and urged the government to apply best efforts to avoid degradation of the results achieved by Russia.

The Customs Union consists of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. “Delegation of a number of functions to the Customs Union, the bodies of the Customs Union and other supra-national bodies that will be created is a real problem. Even if it concerns the spheres, in which we are doing rather well, as for example, anti-monopoly investigations or regulation of monopolistic activity, delegation of functions to a supra-national body can rather lower our level than raise it,” RIA Novosti quotes Medvedev. The Russian PM said Russia's partners in the Customs Union “have own drawbacks”. “We are better in this sense. I can say without false modesty: they are perhaps not perfect in this sector, but we are better, though we have enough problems,” the Russian government head noted. He said everything possible should be done “to avoid degradation of already achieved results when delegating the functions of controlling anti-monopoly investigations and restriction of monopolistic activity”. “In this case, it would be better to wait for a while. We have a schedule, but we need to consider the pros and cons before doing it,” Medvedev said.