Cuba and the Eurasian Economic Union
Cuba and the Eurasian Economic Union
Mutually beneficial cooperation for common prosperity
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU or EEU) is an organization of regional economic integration, consisting of states of the former Soviet Union. Its member-states are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and the Russian Federation. It provides for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor among the nations of the Union. It was created with the objective of increasing the productivity of the national economies and their competitiveness in the world-economy, with the intention of raising the living standards of the member nations.
Such a free trade association among states promotes their common development when they have equal and complementary levels of development. On the other hand, a free trade agreement deepens inequality when the countries have unequal levels of development, with some nations manufacturing high value-added goods and others concentrated in the exportation of low-waged, low value-added products. The more developed economies are taking advantage of the low cost of labor in the less developed economies, a common phenomenon in the neocolonial world-system that has been given the name “unequal exchange.”
In trade agreements between nations of unequal levels of development, some adjustments must be made in order for the relation to be mutually beneficial and just. Often a good strategy is investment in strategic economic sectors of the less developed partner(s). This requires that the government of the less developed country has the capacity to independently define the nation’s economic plan, without external interference by the economically stronger nations; and it requires that said government gives priority to the development of the national economy, to improving the overall productivity of the national economy, to providing equal economic opportunities for all, and to ensuring the protection of the basic social and economic rights of the people.
The existence of such favorable political conditions in the developing countries has not been the pattern since the transition to a neocolonial world-system in the post-World War II era. This situation prompted the nations of the global South to produce a document calling for a “New International Economic Order”, approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1974. The world powers ignored this proclamation; they went in the opposite direction, imposing neoliberal economic policies on the states of the world, beginning in the 1980s. This short-sighted turn provoked worldwide people’s rebellions, because of its negative repercussions with respect to the concrete needs of daily life. Thus emerged a new generation of leaders in the neocolonized zones as well as in China, Russia, and Eastern Europe, who called for the true sovereignty of states and for the development of mutually beneficial trade and cooperation among nations, necessary prerequisites for the common development of national economies.
The idea of a Eurasian union was initially suggested by Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first President of Kazakhstan, in 1994 during a speech at Moscow State University. It was incrementally implemented through various agreements and treaties from 1995 to 2014. Reaching out to the world, EAEU has signed major trade agreements with Vietnam (2015), China and Iran (2018), and Serbia and Singapore (2019).
The EAEU has developed the Common System of Tariff Preferences for approved goods from 29 developing and 48 “least-developed” countries from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as well as from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. The system is designed to promote the economic development of said countries.
In 2018, Cuba and the Eurasian Economic Union signed a memorandum of understanding, committing to the elimination of barriers to commerce and investment and to the increase of mutually beneficial cooperation. On December 11, 2020, Cuba was granted observer status in the EAEU, which increases possibilities for Cuban interaction with the Union. Subsequently, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has participated virtually in meetings of the Union.
On January 15, 2024, as part of the permanent process of the strengthening of ties, the Third Cuba-EEU Joint Meeting was held in Havana. The EEU delegation was led by Sergei Glazyev, Minister of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Glazyev is an influential economist who has proposed the strengthening of tendencies toward a pluripolar world through the creation of a currency that would function as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. See “A just world economic order: Influential Russian economist speaks of global realities,” April 19, 2022.
In the epoch of the former Soviet Union, the territory of the countries that today form the Eurasian Economic Union were important zones for the USSR-Cuba commerce, especially in industry and agriculture. Today, in addition to renewing traditional areas of interchange, there is an orientation to advance in new areas, such as the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology, in which Cuba has much to contribute. It is also hoped that Cuba will serve as a bridge between the countries of the EAEU and those of Latin America and the Caribbean, taking into account Cuba’s leadership role in the process of Latin American and Caribbean union and integration.
On May 8, 2024, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke at the meeting of the Eurasian Economic Supreme Council in Moscow. He began with the observation that it is a special honor to participate in the meetings on such an important date, the sixty-fourth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the then-Soviet Union and the young Revolution of the Republic of Cuba, which began a bond of friendship and cooperation to which the Cuban people owe so much of their social and human development. “As we have said on other occasions, the Cuban Government attaches great importance to economic, commercial, and financial relations of cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union and its member States, having as a premise the historical relations that unite us with this group of countries.”
The Cuban President observed that the agitated situation in various places of the planet causes concern, and it calls us to action in support of the process of formation of a new world order that is more just, inclusive, and equitable. He noted that in the ten years since the EAEU was established, it has demonstrated that it is a successful, attractive, and sustainable project of integration, which has placed a high priority on development.
Díaz-Canel reiterated the will and interest of Cuba in having a greater participation in the EAEU. He called for “better coordination to propel joint projects of mutual interest,” through a more systematic relation among the ministers, and a greater diversity of ties. He stressed that Cuba gives great importance to governmental management based in science and innovation, as the representatives of the member states know. “Without doubt, the road of knowledge is the key to the development of nations, and for this reason, it is one of the lines of work that we would like to deepen in our relations with the Union.” He declared that Cuba places its gains in the medical, pharmaceutical, and biopharmaceutical industries at the disposition of the member states for future collaboration. And Cuba is disposed to continue advancing with respect to the presence of Cuban doctors in the countries of the Union. Cuba also appreciates possibilities for the participation of Cuban high-tech companies in the industries of the Union. Direct ties between the companies of the Union and Cuban companies ought to be developed, the Cuban President noted.
The Cuban President also declared that in the context of the intensification of the blockade against Cuba and the admirable, courageous, and creative response of the Cuban people, the historic understanding, friendship, and support of the countries of the EAEU have an immeasurable value. “Those who blockade us will never be able to understand, and therefore will never be able to impede, the excellent relations between our countries and the shared vision that a better world is possible, a world that we can make together, based on the principles of cooperation, mutual respect and shared wellbeing, all values that distinguish this Union.”
Díaz-Canel concluded, “Cuba will continue to promote and strengthen the sustainable economic development of all nations involved, for the sake of greater prosperity for our peoples. In that endeavor, you can always count on Cuba.”
The summit was held in Alexandrovsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. In addition to Díez-Canel, participating in the summit were Vladimir Putin, President of Russia; Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus; Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan; Zadyr Shaparov, President of Kyrgyzstan; and Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia and the Union’s current chairman. Uzbekistan, an observer state along with Cuba, was represented by its president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The countries of the EAEU have a total population of 185.5 million, 2.3% of the world population. The GDP of the Union is 2,391.9 billion dollars, 3.2% of the world GDP. Its industrial production in 2023 grew 3.7% over the previous year, and it represents 2.2% of world industrial production. Its steel production is 4.3% of world production; petroleum, 14.5%; gas, 20.3%; and agriculture, 2.7%.
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Further considerations
The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union are building economic development on a basis of mutually beneficial trade and cooperation among nations. In doing so, they are participating in the construction of an alternative world order by the nations of the East and South, with China playing a leading role. This worldwide process of alternative construction is not confrontational with the Western powers, which are invited to participate in the making of a better world.
Many of the countries of the alternative construction have strong militaries, but they have developed them for purposes of self-defense, with realistic concerns with respect to Western expansionism and other violent actors. They do not seek territorial expansion through military means.
Nor do they interfere in the internal affairs of other nations in the pursuit of economic interests. They attract the engagement of other countries through the offering of beneficial commercial transactions, on the basis of their natural resources and productive capacities.
The nations of the East and South are compelled to construct an alternative world order, because the capitalist world-economy and the neocolonial world-system operate on the basis of coercion, as is well known. In the application of methods of coercion, the Western powers not only distort the system toward the protection of their interests, but also interfere with and distort the productive capacity inherent in free markets. In contrast, many of the key states of the East and South are developing strong states with economic development plans that include definitions of the necessary economic space for the operation of universal free market principles, functioning under the guidance and regulation of the state, which ought to represent the common good. This constitutes an advance in the human understanding of the dynamics of political economy.
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