Eurasian economic Union: Opportunities and barriers to regional and global leadership

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is a new integration grouping in the post-Soviet space that is generating heightened interest as a global economy with the potential to become a new regional and global actor. This article analyzes the effectiveness of the Eurasian integration processes and proposes several actions to strengthen economic relations among EEU members through detecting and building common economic interests. Russia accounts for as much as 87% of the EEU's geo-economic potential, which stresses the country's role as an integrative hub. The EEU benefits are thus unevenly distributed among its participants. Moreover, these benefits lack consistency and long-term orientation, which may threaten the EEU's existence if markets and international economic relations change. This article analyses the interrelation and interdependency of national economies in terms of the mutual trade in goods and services and investment cooperation. It finds that the level of economic integration does not meet the interests of strengthening Eurasian integration. Despite the huge benefits of the Customs Union, trade volumes have not increased and the structure of manufacturing and cooperation ties remain unchanged. This article recommends that developing and implementing a common industrial and agricultural policy would strengthen the EEU, and proposes an approach to estimate the results of such a policy.