The CIS Court Considers the "Oil" Claim of Belarus to Russia

As specified in the court, Minsk accuses Moscow of «violation of international agreements within the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Community and the international agreements between Russia and Belarus, which provide duty-free trade in free trade regime, including duty-free trade of oil products».

Besides the duties on petroleum products, Belarus also disputes Russia’s introduction of duties on petrochemical raw materials, imported from Russia.

According to the court’s regulations, in case of claim accept in a process after its consideration, taken decision is obligatory for the state or any CIS institute, which it was made for. In addition, the regulations allow the parties to resolve disputes in conciliatory manner, BelTA informs.

As Telegraf previously reported, the CIS Economic Court received the claim of Belarus on March 26.

The CIS Court’s decision on Belarusian suit will be recommendatory, Russian Foreign Ministry

In its turn, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia as far back as in late March stated that the decision of the CIS Economic Court on Belarusian suit concerning the duties on oil products will not be obligatory. «This should be taken easy … Well, and the court — the court should examine it. By the way, the court makes a recommendatory decision», First Deputy Foreign Minister, Andrei Denisov, said.

Moreover, the representative of Russian Foreign Ministry called as «normal» that Belarus resolve an issue on the payment of duties on petroleum products by means of «leverage of correct dispute’s resolution usual for market economy».

«Referring to current suit, this issue is the subject of negotiations between the two countries. In general, the decision has already been found and fixed in the relevant agreements signed between the two countries», Andrei Denisov said.

However, according to the spokesman of the CIS Economic Court, Vladimir Vinnik, decisions of this court are obligatory for all Commonwealth countries.