Customs Awaiting Transit

 Kazakhstan has become the last Eurasian Economic Union member to ratify the agreement on a unified customs transit system. Putting the document into effect will make freight transport seamless and boost the EAEU countries’ transit potential.

 Last week Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law ratifying the EAEU’s unified customs transit agreement. Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia had ratified it earlier.
 
 Concluded on 26 December 2024, the agreement aims to make transport logistics seamless within the bilateral treaties between the EAEU and neighboring countries. “This is about making transport faster and cheaper through digital technology, and about cutting the risk of delivery errors, which matters especially to the end consumer,” the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) said in a statement. Among other things, the agreement introduces a single electronic transit declaration valid throughout the EAEU and a single guarantee for the payment of taxes and duties.
 
 Navigation seals from third countries that have signed the relevant agreements will also be recognized across the EAEU. Tracking goods with such seals throughout the union began on 11 February 2026.
 
 The agreement’s entry into force is on the home stretch, says Sergei Shklyaev, EEC Minister for Customs Cooperation, but in practice it will start working only once at least one country outside the EAEU accedes. Uzbekistan and China are the leading candidates.
 
 Uzbekistan has already signaled interest in joining the unified EAEU customs transit system. Kuat Rakhimov, director of the EEC’s department of customs legislation and enforcement practice, told Gudok as much during the forum “Transport Corridors of Eurasia: New Horizons and Opportunities” last December (Gudok No. 184, 9 December 2025). Talks with China, he said, are proceeding at the level of the bilateral customs-cooperation subcommittee.
 
 Picking Uzbekistan and China as priority partners makes perfect sense, believes Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert at the asset manager Finam Management.
 
 Uzbekistan is a strategic neighbor in Central Asia; cooperating with it will streamline logistics across the CIS and lift trade turnover between the countries.
 China is the largest trading partner, and its cargo will add to transit through Russia and across the EAEU.
 
 All told, the EAEU’s unified customs transit agreement with third countries will strengthen the transit potential not only of Russia but of the other Eurasian Union states as well, the expert says.
 
 Dmitry Koptev