Common Economic Zone Agreement

The Single Economic Space would involve a supranational commission on trade and tariffs that would be based in Kiev, would initially be headed by a representative of Kazakhstan, and would not be subordinate to the governments of the four nations.

According to the Protocol of the first meeting of the HLG on 6 March 2003, the Agreement on the formation of the SES was to provide for On 19 September 2003 in Yalta, during the Summit of the CIS Heads of State, the Presidents of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine signed the Agreement on the Formation of the Single Economic Space.

Its main significance is that at the highest political level a clear position of Ukraine on the format of its participation in the SES was stated.

On 3 February 2006, Astana hosted the 24th meeting of the High Level Group on the formation of the Single Economic Space, chaired by Minister of Economy Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

This was confirmed in August 2006[12] and in October 2007 it was announced that a customs union would be formed by Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan by 2011 with other members being able to join later.