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Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
2.
Cooperation and integration mechanisms in EAEU
Two distinctions between LAC and EAEU are the smaller number of EAEU countries and the fact that through EAEU these countries have an automatic platform of cooperation. Furthermore, due to its size, the Russian Federation is a leading country amongst EAEU member States with a more developed international network of cooperation.
(a)
Cooperation within EAEU
Unlike the LAC region, EAEU member States, united in a single association, are embedded into integration processes to an equitable extent. The Union State of Belarus and the Russian Federation is the only example of bilateral rather than multilateral integration ties within EAEU. Whereas the Union State appeared early in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 and entered into force on 1 January 2015. Initially concluded by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, EAEU was joined by Armenia and Kyrgyzstan on 2 January 2015 and 7 August 2015 respectively. Therefore, whereas internal cooperation in LAC is organised in the form of membership in various initiatives and organizations, its forms in EAEU can be rather inferred from intra-EAEU projects. As an international organization of regional economic integration, EAEU has inherited the achievements of previous integration stages: The Customs’ Union (2009-2011), the single market (Common Economic Space, 2012-2014) and the Economic Union (since 2015). While EAEU originally focused on purely economic targets, the member States have proceeded much further than the simplification of trade procedures. EAEU goals include ambitious ones, such as improving the quality of life of all population groups through the creation of a vast common market, production diversification, efficiency improvement and employing the full economic potential of the member States. By 2020, common markets for goods and over fifty types of services have been established. To ensure their smooth functioning, trade barriers are being identified and abolished and 48 EAEU technical regulations have already been established to address sensitive issues regarding technical barriers to trade. A common labour market and freedom of movement make it possible for the entire EAEU workforce to find employment in any of the member States without additional requirements or diploma recognition procedures. Common capital markets, encompassing banking, insurance, brokerage and other types of financial services, are being established. The member States are striving to create common markets for energy, gas and oil products. To simplify the procedures of operating in common markets, EAEU is undergoing the digitalization, a process which implies, among others, the digital traceability of goods, the admittance of electronic shipment documents and digital transport corridors. Certain spheres of EAEU economies cannot be transferred to supranational governance and member States pursue coordinated, rather than common, policy. Coordinated macroeconomic policy aims at achieving balanced economic development and stipulates, inter alia, that in elaborating macroeconomic policy, member States are guided by established quantitative stability criteria, as well as the Main Directions of EAEU development. Coordinated agricultural policy intends to ensure that EAEU resource potential is leveraged, while coordinated transport policy establishes a priority of creating a common transport services market. To enable EAEU fully to explore all its multi-dimensional development prospects, the member States have created an extensive institutional structure, including the Eurasian
