Pepeliaev Group lawyer becomes a Customs Union expert

Galina Balandina, a Pepeliaev Group partner and Head of the firm’s Customs Law and Foreign Trade Regulation Practice, has been named as a member of the Council of Experts of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. This was confirmed on 9 December 2010 by a Decision of the EurAsEC Interstate Council, the Customs Union’s supreme body, which operates at the head of state level.

The Customs Union’s Council of Experts has been formed to examine the applications of businesses and individual entrepreneurs and also of the Customs Union’s Member States as to whether the Customs Union Commission’s binding decisions are in line with the laws and treaties of the Customs Union. Each Member State is represented on the Council of Experts by five of its citizens, who have the necessary specialist knowledge and experience in law, international trade and other areas relating to dispute resolution.

“The Council of Experts is made up of the leading practitioners in foreign trade and customs regulation in the three states. Working in a team like this will allow us efficiently to apply the knowledge we have accumulated to smooth the difficult path of building the Customs Union and the Single Market”, asserts Galina Balandina.