The twelve members of the Commonwealth of Independent States established a Free Trade Area to help maintain trade among each other. More recently, Belarus, Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Russia agreed, in principle, to establish a Customs Union (CU). The paper concludes that the dynamic...

The Customs Union proposed for four members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)- the Free Trade Area established among the 12 members of the CIS- likely to lock those countries into the old technology of the former Soviet Union. The effects of such organizations will be especially...