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MINSK, 25 January (BelTA) – Belarus speaks in favor of accelerating the development of the single economic policy in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Belarus’ First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Yevdochenko said at a panel discussion held on 25 January to mark Russia’s EAEU Chairmanship, BelTA has learned.

“It is crucially important to speed up the development of the single industrial, agricultural, transport, energy and other policies in order to remove existing barriers and restrictions and achieve truly equal conditions for economic agents in the field of trade, government procurement, subsidies, and so on. I would like to reiterate: the need is for unified, not coordinated, policies, as it should be in a true economic union,” said Andrei Yevdochenko.

According to him, Belarus shares Russia’s priorities in the formation of unified markets for goods and services, free of barriers, withdrawals and restrictions, on the further joint development of the EAEU's policy, development of new directions and areas of interaction, development of mutually beneficial cooperation with third countries, other trade and economic associations and international organizations. “To meet the objective, we support consistent strengthening of supranational bodies of the union, including the expansion of powers of the Eurasian Economic Commission,” the first deputy minister added.

Andrei Yevdochenko also stressed that in 2017, when the world economy and regions started recovering from recession, EAEU demonstrated impressive effectiveness. Speaking about the prospects of the union, he noted that in order to ensure its advantage over other Eurasian integration processes, it is important to discuss the issue of interaction within the union.