RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG73/3
20 September 2000
(00-3745)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:  English
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC
AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Communication from the Kyrgyz Republic
I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AGREEMENT
1. Membership and Dates of Signature, Ratification and Entry into Force.
The Parties to the Agreement are the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on one side and the
Government of the Russian Federation on the other.
The Agreement was signed on 8 October 1992.
On 14 February 1993, the Russian Federation notified the Government of the Kyrgyz
Republic on the completion of its internal procedures required for the Agreement to become effective.
The Agreement became effective on 24 March 1993 when the similar note was submitted by theGovernment of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Government of the Russian Federation.
2. Type of Agreement
The Agreement creates a free-trade area.  It provides for the elimination of customs duties,
taxes and charges having an equivalent effect to customs duties, on substantially all the trade between
the Parties.
3. Scope
The Protocol on Exceptions to the Agreement was signed on 26 December 1992.  It was
replaced by the Protocol on Exceptions from the Free Trade Regime, of 12 July 1994.  According tothis Protocol goods subject to export tariffs and licensing are excluded from the Free Trade
Agreement with Russia.
Although the Protocols call them exceptions, the import and export licensing requirements are
permitted under the relevant provisions of GATT 1994.  Therefore, according to Article XXIV:8(b),trade in these goods is not excluded from the trade data for the purposes of calculating the trade
coverage.
In 1999, for the period from 1 July through 1 December, seasonal duties were introduced by
the Kyrgyz Republic for grain (1001) and flour (1101.00).
1  Since these duties are no longer in force,
that creates a situation where currently there are no restrictions applied by the Kyrgyz Republic in
trade with the Russian Federation.  Furthermore, according to the Protocol, of 2 April 1999, on
                                                     
1 Effect of these duties on the coverage in trade with the Russian Federation in 1999 is shown in
Annex I.WT/REG73/3
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Amendments and Supplements to the Agreement on the Creation of a Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) Free-Trade Area (FTA), the Parties to the CIS FTA Agreement agreed not to introduce
new quantitative and tariff restrictions on imports and/or exports in trade between them.  Within
twelve months starting from the date of entry into force of the Protocol, the Parties shall enter into
bilateral arrangements on phasing out existing restrictions in trade between them.  The RussianFederation and the Kyrgyz Republic have not signed such bilateral arrangement yet.
4. Trade Data
Data on intra-trade is represented in Annex II.
II. TRADE  PROVISIONS
1. Import Restrictions
1.1 Duties and charges
Currently, the Kyrgyz Republic applies no customs duties, or tariff quotas and charges having
an equivalent effect to customs and fiscal duties to imports from the territory of the
Russian Federation.  According to the changes to the CIS FTA Agreement introduced by the Protocol
of 2 April 1999, no restrictions will remain in effect after this Protocol is fully implemented.
1.2 Quantitative restrictions
Currently, there are no quantitative restrictions on imports from the territory of the
Russian Federation applied by the Kyrgyz Republic.  According to the changes to the CIS FTA
Agreement introduced by the Protocol of 2 April 1999, no quantitative restrictions will remain ineffect after this Protocol is fully implemented.
2. Export Restrictions
2.1 Duties and charges
Currently, the Kyrgyz Republic applies no customs duties, or tariff quotas and charges having
an equivalent effect to customs and fiscal duties to exports to the territory of the Russian Federation.
According to the changes to the CIS FTA Agreement introduced by the Protocol of 2 April 1999, no
restrictions will remain in effect after this Protocol is fully implemented.
2.2. Quantitative restrictionsCurrently, there are no quantitative restrictions on exports to the territory of the
Russian Federation applied by the Kyrgyz Republic.  According to the changes to the CIS FTA
Agreement introduced by the Protocol of 2 April 1999, no quantitative restrictions will remain in
effect after this Protocol is fully implemented.
3. Rules of Origin
A country of origin of goods shall be a state where a product was wholly produced or
substantially transformed.  The substantial transfor mation criterion can be determined by change in
tariff classification at the level of one of the first four digits or by ad valorem  percentages.  The
Agreement does not contain provisions on any type of cumulation of origin.WT/REG73/3
Page 3
The Agreement does not contain extensive provisio ns related to determining rules of origin.
It referred to a separate agreement to be develope d for the detailed provisions regarding the rules of
origin.  Under the CIS Free-Trade Area Agreement, of 15 April 1994, the country of origin of a
commodity in trade between the Parties to the Agr eement is determined in accordance with the CIS
Rules on Determining Country of Origin of Goods2 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules).  The CIS
countries signed the Rules on 24 September 1993.  The country of origin of a product is considered a
CIS country where the product was wholly produced or subject to substantial transformation.  The
Rules provide for a list of goods which are considered wholly produced.  Substantial transformation
may be manifested through (i) an  ad valorem  portion, (ii) a list of production or technological
processes, and (iii) changes of tariff headings.  The list of production or technological processes is
still being negotiated among the Parties to the Agreement.  In cases where there are no criteria
specified with respect to a particular product, the general criterion of changes in tariff heading isapplied.  A product is considered substantially transformed if its tariff classification has changed at
any of the first four digits with a list of exceptions.  Such exceptions are being developed and may
contain a list of production or technological operations which, though cause a change in tariff line, are
not considered a sign of substantial transformation, or are considered such only if certain conditions
are followed, and also may contain a list of produ ction or technological operations which, though do
not cause a change in tariff line, are considered a sign of substantial transformation, provided that
certain conditions are followed.
The Rules provide for a possibility of using a cumulative principle of origin while applying
the criterion of substantial transformation.  The cumulative principle can be used with respect to theCIS countries.  However, the Rules do not contain detailed provisions regarding cumulation.
4. Standards
The Parties to the Agreement may unilaterally introduce measures generally accepted in
international practice and which are necessary to protect life and health of human, environment, and
to protect animal and plant life.  The Agreement does not provide for common standards or mutual
recognition of certificates.  However, in accor dance with the Agreement on the Uniform Policy on
Standardization, Metrology and Certification exec uted by the CIS countries, the Parties to the
Agreement mutually accept certificates issued by accredited institutions of the Parties.
5. Safeguards
The Parties to the Agreement may unilaterally introduce quantitative restrictions and
measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions or other special restrictions, on the
trade of products covered by the Agreement as a safeguard measure in cases:
- of a critical deficit of the balance-of-payment;
- of an acute deficit of this product in the domestic market until the market situation is
stabilized.
- where, with  a view to carrying out measures for the re-export by either Party to the
Agreement to third countries of goods originating from the territory of the other Party
on which latter applies tariff and/or non-tariff measures upon exportation from its
territory, a written permission of the country of origin and the fulfillment of the
condition set thereon are required.  Where this requirement is not met, a Party whoseinterests were violated may unilaterally introduce measures with respect to exports to
the territory of the Party that violated this rule.
                                                     
2 The text of the Rules was circulated in document WT/REG82/1.WT/REG73/3
Page 4
A Party to the Agreement, which applies the rest riction, shall, upon request of the other Party,
provide full information on reasons for introductions, forms and estimated terms of applying the
measure.  There is no specific safeguard provision related to agriculture.
6. Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures
The Agreement does not contain any specific provisions concerning anti-dumping and
countervailing measures.  Nevertheless, the Parties have acknowledged incompatibility of unfair
business practice with the objectives of the Agreement (Article 7).
7. Subsidies and State-Aid
The Parties have agreed not to use State-aid in the form of subsidies if such measures have the
result of violating the normal economic conditions on the territory of the other Party.  There are no
provisions in the Agreement regarding the remedies available to counter their effects on intra-trade.
III. GENERAL PROVISIONS OF THE AGREEMENT
1. Exceptions and Reservations
1.1 General exceptions
The Agreement does not preclude the Parties from using measures necessary to protect the
vital interests or to fulfill internatio nal agreements related to the following:
- protection of life and health of people, animals and plants;- protection of public moral and order;- trade in gold, silver or other precious metals and stones;- protection of industrial and intellectual property;
1.2 Security exceptions
The Agreement does not preclude the Parties from using measures necessary to protect the
vital interests or to fulfill internatio nal agreements related to the following:
- information concerning the national security interests;
- trade in arm, ammunition, and military equipment;- research or production related to the needs of defence;- supplies of materials and equipment used in the nuclear industry.
2. Accession
Any country may join the Agreement if the Parties agree on it.  The Agreement does not
provide for conditions of joining, which are to be agreed between the Parties to the Agreement and an
acceding country.WT/REG73/3
Page 5
3. Dispute Settlement Procedures
Disputes between the Parties shall be settled through negotiations.
4. Relation with Other Trade Agreements
The Agreement does not establish any specific relation with other bilateral, plurilateral and/or
multilateral trade agreements.  The Preamble of th e Agreement makes general references to:  the
Agreement on Friendship, Collaboration and Mutual Aid between the Russian Federation and the
Republic of Kyrgyzstan, signed on 10 June 1992,  the multilateral Agreement on Collaboration in the
Area of Foreign Economic Activity, of 15 May 1992, the multilateral Agreement on the Coordinationof Work on the Issues of Export Control of Raw Materials, Materials, Equipment, Technologies and
Services, which can be Used to Create Weapons of Mass Extermination and Rocket Means for Its
Delivery, of 26 June 1992.
5. Institutional Framework
The Parties to the Agreement have agreed to form a Joint Kyrgyz-Russian Commission for
the implementation of the Agreement and development of recommendations to improve the trade and
economic relations between the Parties to the Agreement.
IV. OTHER
Other provisions of the Agreement refer to the following:
- Internal Taxation:  no internal taxes and charges are applied by the Parties, implying
directly or indirectly discrimination against the products of the other Party;
- Special restrictions or requirements are applied on a non-discriminatory basis;- Storage, reloading, warehousing, transportation, payments and transfer of payments:
no measures discriminating the products of other Party are applied;
- Re-exportation:  each Party to the Agreement undertakes not to re-export goods,
originating from the territory of one of the Parties, to third countries unless it gets
permission from the other Party.  This provision applies with respect to the goods to
which the Party, where these goods originate from, applies tariff and/or non-tariff
measures upon exportation from its territory;
- Customs tariffs:  the Parties have agreed to hold regular consultations for the purposes
of rapprochement of the levels of customs duties in trade with third countries;
- The Parties have agreed to use the CIS Goods Nomenclature of Foreign Economic
Activity based on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System and the
Combined Tariff-Statistical Nomenclature of the European Union;
- Freedom of transit.
The obligation not to allow unfair business practices, including but not limited to certain
practices of use by certain enterprises of their dominant position intending to limit competition on the
territories of the Parties to the Agreement;WT/REG73/3
Page 6
ANNEX I
Trade between the Kyrgyz Republic and Russia
Trade Coverage
1997 1998 1999
Value
(thousand
US$)Coverage
in
percentageValue
(thousand
US$)Coverage
in
percentageValue
(thousand
US$)Coverage
in
percentage
IMPORTS
HS Chap. 1 - 24 30,197.1 100 9,880.0 100 10,316.5 100
HS Chap. 25 – 97 160,602.1 100 194,177.8 100 99,049.6 100
TOTAL 190,799.2 100 204,057.8 100 109,366.1 100
EXPORTS
HS Chap. 1 - 24 45,837.6 100 48,990.6 100 44,731.7 100
HS Chap. 25 - 97 53,007.3 100 34,688.7 100 25,981.4 100
TOTAL 98,844.9 100 83,679.3 100 70,713.1 100
IMPORTS &
EXPORTS
HS Chap. 1 - 24 76,034.7 100 58,870.6 100 55,048.2 100
HS Chap. 25 - 97 213,609.4 100 228,866.5 100 125,031.0 100
TOTAL 289,644.1 100 287,737.1 100 180,079.2 100
Source: National Statistics Committee.WT/REG73/3
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ANNEX II
Imports into the Kyrgyz Republic from Russia
(Thousand of US$)
Year H.S.
Chapter 1997 1998 1999
Total 190,799.2 204,057.8 109,366.1
1 2.9 5.3 2.4
2 19.9 47.6 27.2
3 1,530.4 2,118.3 1,376.7
4 479.9 1,399.4 1,115.2
5 6.6 1.1 5.0
7 174.2 79.0 18.7
8 40.1 11.3 37.9
9 26.8 11.1 12.7
10 32.9 339.7 40.9
11 934.9 678.4 359.9
12 290.1 73.3 11.5
13 - 7.5 -
15 1,754.8 610.3 190.4
16 182.4 527.2 467.7
17 23,033.3 2,048.5 2,762.5
18 409.1 625.9 1,639.5
19 387.4 429.8 646.5
20 80.9 100.1 226.1
21 241.5 483.8 162.3
22 497.7 170.7 1,005.9
23 71.3 97.9 80.7
24 - 13.8 126.8
25 798.5 1,466.0 302.5
26 75.4 5,144.7 870.2
27 48,318.8 53,363.3 27,454.2
28 6,982.3 3,495.8 2,125.5
29 2,034.1 2,361.5 2,100.4
30 2,444.4 3,553.9 2,258.6
31 1,186.7 5,107.3 917.8
32 2,641.4 3,094.8 2,110.7
33 268.1 342.8 179.2
34 866.2 1,297.8 1,580.3
35 48.4 73.0 76.5
36 1,835.7 1,698.7 1,192.5
37 84.4 78.9 26.2
38 2,713.9 1,399.4 1,287.4
39 3,693.5 3,905.3 1,971.2
40 7,621.9 8,142.5 4,783.3
41 211.4 58.5 44.8
42 43.5 19.9 2.9
43 2.5 9.7 1.7
44 8,497.0 8,241.6 3,324.5
47 - 21.3 1.2
48 6,496.2 9,058.0 4,420.5
49 526.6 13,159.1 993.8WT/REG73/3
Page 8
Year H.S.
Chapter 1997 1998 1999
50 - - 9.4
51 547.3 225.0 406.2
52 77.9 145.0 21.5
53 239.9 90.1 61.5
54 1,289.7 193.9 125.5
55 472.2 275.4 48.6
56 422.4 560.7 254.5
57 52.2 2.1 -
58 27.5 20.7 39.1
59 1,453.4 2,036.7 775.8
60 10.0 2.0 -
61 524.8 151.4 11.9
62 303.1 98.4 59.0
63 167.2 97.5 202.6
64 1,473.6 1,367.6 787.0
65 65.9 15.3 -
66 - 1.1 1.3
68 300.1 556.1 386.0
69 892.3 659.8 582.3
70 903.1 1,224.5 214.3
71 413.6 265.1 8.5
72 4,458.5 7,378.5 3,167.8
73 5,392.8 11,328.3 4,992.5
74 1,109.1 654.0 1,064.4
75 54.4 7.3 11.8
76 2,095.1 745.5 240.9
78 78.8 66.3 21.8
79 54.5 144.4 136.2
80 73.9 100.1 50.9
81 1,483.0 1,432.7 902.3
82 103.7 289.1 73.2
83 943.9 859.0 670.7
84 23,392.7 21,929.4 11,455.9
85 5,957.6 5,577.0 7,290.5
86 158.5 1,896.9 165.5
87 4,398.6 5,978.8 5,639.8
88 524.5 259.1 272.1
90 1,536.6 1,831.9 644.1
91 37.3 19.6 8.4
92 11.7 - 3.5
94 1,450.6 398.2 179.6
95 79.9 12.6 10.0
96 89.0 68.2 12.8
Source:  National Statistics Committee.WT/REG73/3
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Exports from the Kyrgyz Republic into Russia
(Thousand of US$)
Year H.S.
Chapter 1997 1998 1999
Total 98,844.9 83,679.3 70,713.1
1 2.3 2.5 3.1
26 . 1 5 . 0 -
3 - 15.5 -
4 608.2 124.6 68.9
6 12.5 16.2 4.2
7 8,182.8 7,900.0 4,179.4
8 7,697.5 3,863.7 2,866.8
9 37.2 78.6 40.7
10 81.8 61.0 1.8
11 312.4 113.9 -
12 1,831.8 968.6 1,744.9
13 58.4 30.7 10.1
14 105.6 51.3 7.6
15 62.0 44.1 12.8
16 822.8 250.2 10.5
17 1,562.2 388.3 297.6
18 - - 401.9
19 110.2 38.4 19.3
20 945.4 649.6 703.6
21 979.1 13.2 22.0
22 1,856.1 10.2 5.4
23 - 1.0 71.7
24 20,563.2 34,364.0 34,259.4
25 1,551.5 466.4 264.3
26 787.3 333.5 576.6
27 829.6 681.4 538.0
28 2,849.5 1,247.1 938.1
29 1.7 2.7 -
30 5.9 316.4 214.6
32 308.9 27.0 21.3
33 11.9 60.2 125.5
34 11.0 - 12.9
35 28.8 22.6 -
38 1.2 - -
39 503.0 213.0 702.8
40 265.9 289.9 37.2
41 256.7 156.2 26.7
42 131.9 22.7 7.2
43 276.3 110.7 8.7
44 53.6 4.1 1.0
48 22.3 69.7 40.5
49 14.3 0.6 8.8
50 24.9 7.4 1.0
51 432.8 631.6 1,048.8
52 3,982.5 2,165.2 6,732.5
53 15.3 29.3 -
54 130.4 7.6 8.9WT/REG73/3
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Year H.S.
Chapter 1997 1998 1999
55 212.8 274.5 126.1
56 741.4 282.3 101.0
57 525.4 125.7 3.9
58 36.9 13.3 76.9
59 2,240.8 1,546.6 310.9
60 20.0 6.9 3.2
61 2,727.2 1,389.2 351.6
62 2,929.8 1,627.5 689.3
63 2,011.2 1,315.2 1,354.0
64 656.6 543.4 67.7
65 5.2 17.9 1.3
66 - 2.2 -
67 8.3 12.9 1.0
68 1,239.0 820.0 69.7
69 37.7 - 3.0
70 1,369.5 747.9 70.3
71 221.0 - -
72 283.8 274.9 9.2
73 1,135.8 691.2 368.1
74 7.8 26.5 123.8
76 79.8 74.1 15.9
81 3,826.5 2,273.3 1,180.6
82 329.1 309.6 308.5
83 117.6 73.8 5.5
84 5,681.7 3,044.7 1,488.2
85 9,501.6 7,030.5 5,339.1
86 176.6 18.3 1.0
87 2,781.0 2,297.9 1,760.5
88 59.0 13.7 56.5
90 366.9 71.9 141.8
91 - 1.3 -
94 872.4 251.6 55.4
95 219.7 74.1 5.0
96 87.4 178.5 166.2
97 - 1.0 280.2
Source:  National Statistics Committee.
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