Lukashenka wants to outfox Putin

Even if Belarus ratifies the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty, it will make it on some conditions.

Narodnaya Volia obtained the text of the bill on the ratification of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty submitted to the “house of representatives”. It follows from the document that if the ratification takes place, Belarus is going to reserve the right to withdraw from the agreement.

The document submitted to the parliaments begins like that:

Article 1. To ratify the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty signed in Astana on May 29, 2014, with the following statement:

“The Republic of Belarus states that it shall fulfill the obligations under the Treaty in good faith and take other measures to fulfill it under the condition that concrete arrangements on removing barriers, restrictions and exemptions in the trade in certain kinds of goods and rendering certain kinds of services, first of all those related to energy, assembly production, the liberalisation of road transportation and other sensitive categories, have been taken at a trilateral or bilateral meeting.

The arrangements shall contain clauses on inadmissibility of their further worsening until the full removal of exemptions and restrictions in the Eurasian Economic Union.”

The proviso “under the condition” means that Belarus reserves the right to withdraw from the Union at any moment.

The matter is that it is the “sensitive categories” that the parties cannot agree on. In particular, Belarus has not received access to duty-free Russian oil, Lukashenka's big dream.