What Promises Does the Eurasian Customs Union Hold for the Future? Economic Premise no

nomic Community. It carries significant economic weight, mostly because its three member countries represent a poten-tially large consumer market with a total population of 167 million, an estimated total gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2 trillion, and a goods turnover of approximately US$900 billion. Armenia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uz-bekistan are potential participants.1 Almost immediately after forming the ECU, Kazakh-stan, Russia, and Belarus started applying a common external import tariff. In addition to adopting a common external tar-iff, internal border controls were removed, first between Rus-sia and Belarus, and then between Kazakhstan and Russia. With a few exceptions in each of the three member countries, Established in 2010, the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) carries significant economic weight as three of its member countries represent a potentially large consumer market. Drawing on existing literature that has studied the likel