OREANDA-NEWS. On May 19, 2009 Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky expressed concern about the restrictions on direct supplies of Belarusian machinery to Russia. He made this statement as he met with Union State Secretary Pavel Borodin in Minsk, reported the Official website government.by.

“The Russian Agricultural Bank does not provide loans for Belarusian machinery. In fact, direct supply contracts are limited. We have proposed to support credit accommodation both by Belarus and Russia. But the tasks set by the Prime Ministers last time are not being fulfilled,” Sergei Sidorsky said.

He suggested discussing and specifying some issues that will be considered at the session of the Union State Council of Ministers in Minsk on May 28 in order to hold the meeting on a high level. “Overall, we are satisfied with the preparation to the session of the Union State government,” the Belarusian Premier said. He praised the work of Belarusian Vice Premier Andrei Kobyakov and Russian First Vice Premier Igor Shuvalov.

There are some issues the Belarusian side would like to accentuate. They include joint anticrisis efforts, in particular, the deliveries of the Belarusian machinery to Russia, Sergei Sidorsky said.

The trade between Belarus and Russia continues to decline, said Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky. The meeting was held in the run-up to the session of the Union State Council of Ministers that is to take place in Minsk on May 28.

The trade plummeted 40% and continues to fall, the Premier said. “It does not look like the agreements of the previous session of the Council of Ministers are being fulfilled. It arouses concern,” Sergei Sidorsky said. The Belarusian side confirms one more time that it has not imposed any restrictions on the commodity procurement, even in the conditions of the global financial crisis. “We are doing our best to make our market as open as possible for the products of the neighbouring states,” the Prime Minister said.

The Customs Union offers great opportunities for Belarus and Russia. At present, almost 98% of the customs regulations and customs tariffs of Belarus and Russia has been unified. “Last week our government worked out ways to unify customs tariffs as much as possible in order to advance to the external border of the Customs Union by January 1, 2010,” the Prime Minister said.

The session of the Union State Council of Ministers will also touch upon machinery deliveries on leasing terms. Belarus invites Russia to step up cooperation in this area.

The session of the Union State government plans to discuss development of nanotechnologies in Belarus and Russia. “During this time of crisis we have not curtailed innovation programmes,” Sergei Sidorsky said.

Sergei Sidorsky reminded about the instruction of the Chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union State Alexander Lukashenko to give more powers to the Permanent Committee and to involve it in the decision making of the two countries.

State Secretary of the Union State Pavel Borodin believes that the relations between Belarus and Russia “need to be raised to the union level”. “We need to build union relations rather than interagency or corporate relations,” he said. “We need to understand it clearly that we have one economy. By lending to Belarusian companies we lend to Russian companies,” Pavel Borodin added. He is also in favour of the proposal to involve the Permanent Committee of the Union State in all bilateral meetings between Belarus and Russia.

Pavel Borodin reported about his participation in a recent meeting of the agriculture ministers of Belarus and Russia. According to him, the two sides have difficulties reaching agreements on several things. “In principle they need to agree some five positions including price and volume parameters. Yet it was difficult to do it during the two-hour meeting,” he said. At the same time the decisions to purchase food in Brazil or, for example, the USA are taken easily,” Pavel Borodin said.

A total of 28,000 Belarus and Russian enterprises is involved in interagency cooperation within the framework of the Union State, Pavel Borodin added.