BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/12/2006

Belarus Official: Russian Oil Price Hikes Violate Free Trade Pact

Planned duties on Russian oil exports to Belarus violate a free trade pact between the two countries, a senior Belarusian official charged Thursday.

Andrei Popov, Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman, accused the Kremlin of intending to break treaties with its plan to impose a 180- dollars-per-ton export duty on Russian oil sold to Belarus as of January 1 2008.

The Russian plan "is a direct violation of a protocol signed on 6 January 2005" guaranteeing free trade between the two countries, Popov said.

Russia and Belarus technically have open borders, unrestricted trade, and even plan to use a common currency. For years, the Belarusian economy has enjoyed effectively unlimited supplies of Russian energy at prices one-quarter international parices.

Russia in recent months has tightened controls on foreign goods entering the country from Belarus, and embarked on a policy of selling its energy reserves to former Soviet states at international prices.

Russian officials involved in energy managment have repeatedly accused the Belarusian government of receiving low-cost Russian energy only to resell it to European customers at full price, a charge denied by authoritarian Belarusian leader Aleksander Lukashenko.

Russia's annual losses due to surreptitious Belarusian resale of Russian oil, or Belarus' failure to tranfer profits of legitimate sales back to Moscow, amount to more than four billion dollars each year, according to the report.

2006 DPA

Source:

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_5305-Belarus-Official-Russian-Oil-Price-Hikes-Violate-Free-Trade-Pact.html