MINSK, 30 August (BelTA) – The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus is expected to discuss the bill on ratifying the agreement on using special protective, antidumping and compensating measures for the transition period during the forthcoming autumn session. On 30 August the Commission for International Affairs and CIS Relations decided to recommend that the House of Representatives should discuss the bill, BelTA has learned.

At the session of the commission First Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Igor Petrishenko remarked that eight protective measures had been unified within the framework of the Customs Union. Eight of them had come into force. “We have one national special protective measure for fiberglass meshes,” he said. The measure will stay in place till 2013.

The agreement was signed by the governments of the Customs Union member states in Saint Petersburg in November 2010. The document regulates procedures and terms of revising existing special protective, antidumping and compensating measures for the sake of unifying them. The agreement also determines criteria for introducing such measures in the customs territory of the Customs Union. In line with the document a Customs Union member state is supposed to enable non-discriminatory access to the commodities, which are made in the Customs Union and are subject to common protective measures, for customers of other member states. Besides the agreement regulates the handling of confidential information, which is provided to an authorized agency of Customs Union member states by an interested person.

Igor Petrishenko remarked that starting 1 October the authority to carry out antidumping investigations will be transferred to a special department of the Customs Union secretariat. Now the authority is wielded by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, the Industry and Trade Ministry of Russia, and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Kazakhstan.

The autumn session is supposed to start on 3 October.