You're reading: Russia interprets 3+1 formula as Ukraine’s full participation in Customs Union

Russia understands Ukraine's participation in the Customs Union in a 3+1 formula as the direct, full-fledged participation of Ukraine in the Customs Union, Senior Secretary of the Customs Union's Commission Sergei Glaziev said during a Moscow-Kyiv-Astana video link entitled "The Customs Union and the Launch of the Common Economic Space: Prospects and Risks" on Tuesday.

"A 3+1 formula [for Ukraine’s participation in the Customs Union] in our interpretation has the sense only as the full-fledged participation of Ukraine in all of our processes of economic integration," he said.

According to Glaziev, Ukraine’s joining the common customs territory will "automatically" help Ukrainian companies through the transfer to mutual trade without the collection of customs duties.

He also denied the opinion that the participation in the Customs Union would conflict with the country’s participation in the World Trade Organization. According to Glaziev, such an opinion "appears to be a sly one."

"The World Trade Organization recognizes the Customs Union, the WTO does not prevent the creation of customs unions, and for Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine participation in the Customs Union is a way, in particular, to make up for serious blunders they made while joining the WTO, at the cost of surrendering a range of positions, and at the cost of uncovering their domestic markets," he said.

He also said that relations among members of the Customs Union are built on equal and mutually beneficial relations, as are those with the World Trade Organization and the European Union.

Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting Ihor Burakovsky said after the video link that "if Ukraine wants to keep markets there and there [the market with the EU and the market with CIS countries], then I believe that such an approach of transformation of our bilateral agreements on free trade into such a multilateral agreement, the Customs Union on the one side and Ukraine on another, is absolutely proper."

At the same time, he said that joining the Customs Union was "an issue of political choice."

"We will join an organization to which we will transfer a part of our sovereignty, and we must be sure that such a collective organization really will bring significant benefits to us. The same concerns the European Union. We clearly understand that if we join the European Union, this is the same as a transfer of a part of our sovereignty," the expert said.