Kommersant – According to Eurasian Economic Union decision No.72 of year 2014, the free circulation of automobiles in the territory of Eurasian Customs Union countries (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan) will be subject to fulfillment of certain technological operations in body welding and painting and a minimum localisation level of 50%, as of July the 1st. The decision covers the imports of vehicles assembled in one Customs Union country to another. Prior to the aforementioned date, the localisation rate requirement was 30% and the amount of vehicles to be imported to the Russian Federation from Belarus was restricted to 10,000 units per year.
Several dozens of models have been mentioned in the register of the Eurasian Economic Commission for localisation, which was updated in February, however, only a few production sites are in question, mostly in Kazakhstan. Only one Russian manufacturer is included: KAMAZ, one Belarusian: MAZ and six from Kazakhstan: Asia-Auto (Lada models), Saryarkaavtoprom (SsangYong), Hyundai Trans Auto, Daewoo Bus Kazakhstan, SemAZ (LiAZ and GAZ models) and KAMAZ-Engineering. Russian AVTOVAZ, GAZ Group and Sollers and the plants built in Russia by foreign car manufacturers have been left outside the register.
Sources of Kommersant from the industry remind that the localisation standards were initiated by the Russian Federation, in order to protect its market from the Chinese screwdriver assembly at BelGee plant in Belarus. According to the same sources, Russian manufacturers, except KAMAZ, have been excluded from the register, due to the disagreements between Moscow and Minsk: “The Belarusian delegation did not confirm the compliance with the level of localisation even in AVTOVAZ, during the inspection”.
