Bishkek will definitely benefit from joining EEU, expert says

Kyrgyzstan has recently become a full member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). So far, experts are not certain about the cons and pros of that decision.  Some say Kyrgyzstan was not ready to join the union, while others see only a welfare mentality behind Bishkek’s decision to join the EEU.  Still others are inclined to believe that Kyrgyzstan will inevitably “blend into” the EEU and it should have stayed aside of it. Perhaps, the talks on the pros and cons of the country’s accession to the EEU will not fade away soon. EADaily has requested remarks on the situation from Yulia Yakusheva, Executive Director of the North-South Political Studies Center.

For Kyrgyzstan, there was no reasonable alternative to joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Yakusheva said.  “Although the country faced certain problems when joining the Union – it lost an opportunity to re-export the Chinese goods – in case of refusing to join it, the economy of Kyrgyzstan would face much more serious problems. This is about the cons,” Yulia Yakusheva said. As to the main advantages of joining the EEU for the economy of Kyrgyzstan, these are as follows:

1. Further tax-free and preferential terms of import of products of strategic importance for Kyrgyzstan (oil products, gas, grain, chemical products, black and ferrous metals, timber and others);

2. Growth of the competitive ability of Kyrgyz products due to reduction of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers;

3. Growth of macroeconomic indicators in future, including improvement of the payment and trade balance amid reduction of re-export;

4. Opportunities for free movement, improvement of social conditions of labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan in the territory of the EEU countries.