10 years has been celebrated from the date of signing of an Agreement on zone of free trade of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in October 2021. This document was signed by the Heads of the Republic of Armenia, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Republic of Tadjikistan and Republic of Ukraine. Republic of Uzbekistan became the Party to an Agreement in May 2013.
This Agreement on zone of free trade served as an impulse for the development of deeper economic integration and establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Nine States-CIS Members agreed not to use technical, sanitary and phytosanitary measures as trade barriers.
Separate article of an Agreement is devoted to technical barriers to trade. It contains the description of use of the mechanisms of technical regulation and standardization for the purposes of reduction of barriers in mutual trade.
This article says: «In mutual trade the Parties apply technical measures including technical regulations, standards and procedures of conformity assessment and adhere to the rules and principles of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade» ( TBT Agreement).
«The Parties carry out cooperation in the field of standardization, metrology and conformity assessment, accreditation, state control (supervision) in the framework of the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC) in the field of standardization, metrology and certification of the 13th of March 1992. »
Russian Standardization Institute (FSBI «RST») actively participates in the works on interstate standardization in the CIS framework.
Strategy of the CIS Development for 2030 was approved in July 2020. Working group on the development of this Strategy was led by the Federal Agency for Technical Regulating and Metrology. Russian Standardization Institute was responsible for the activities in this Working group.
Russian Standardization Institute signed an open Agreement on joint activities of national standardization institutions of the States- CIS Members in the field of the development of standards and Action Plan on the implementation of this Agreement. This Agreement has been signed by the following Parties:
- National Body for Standards and Metrology of the Republic of Armenia;
- «Belarusian State Institute for Standardization and Certification» (BelGISS);
- Kazakhstan Institute of Standardization and Metrology
(RSE «KazStandard»); - Center for Standardization and Metrology of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic.