WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG71/N/1*
21 April 1999
(99-1639)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:  English
ACCESSION OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC TO THE
CUSTOMS UNION BETWEEN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION,
BELARUS AND KAZAKHSTAN
Notification from the Kyrgyz Republic
The Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic has submitted the following notification in
pursuance of the commitments undertaken in the Protocol of Accession of the Kyrgyz Republic.
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The Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic has the honour to inform that the Agreement
on the Kyrgyz Republic's joining the Interim Agreements for the establishment of a Customs Union
concluded between the Government of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Republic ofBelarus and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan was signed on 29 March 1996 and
entered into force on 8 October 1997.
 1
The Interim Agreements contain provisions relating to trade in goods that are of relevance to
the WTO.
The Agreements aim at establishing a customs union between the Republic of Belarus, the
Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic in the sense of
Article XXIV of the GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV.
Duties and other restrictive regulations of commerce are eliminated with respect to substantially all
the trade between the parties to the Agreement.  The transitional period for the establishment of
substantially the same duties and other regulations of commerce applied to the trade of territories notincluded in the union is proposed to be finalised by 2003.
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*This document was previously circulated as WT/ACC/KGZ/30 and WT/REG/71/1.
1The text of the Agreement on Accession, as well as the Interim Agreements for establishing a Customs
Union, are circulated in document WT/REG71/1.