After becoming an independent country, the government of Kazakhstan followed a policy of strategic integration with world markets and economic liberalization. The country's leadership viewed integration as a necessity for the economy and as part of the modern trend of globalization. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was the initiator of the formation of the customs union, although the expected benefits for the Kazakh economy were not significant. President Nazarbayev explained that the integration of 3 countries would create a new market of 180 million people instead of 17 million and therefore foreign investments could be attracted. Furthermore, he emphasized that the elimination of customs tariffs between 3 states would create opportunities for Kazakh producers as their goods would be cheaper and more competitive in Russia and Belarus and the cost of transporting oil and gas would become lower. Another point emphasized by Nazarbayev for the creation of the customs union is that the competition between 3 countries will become stronger and this will stimulate Kazakh producers. In addition to eliminating customs between countries, one of the main issues that three governments are working on is the expansion of integration. through trade facilitation. It can be achieved by reducing costs in other aspects of trade between 3 countries, such as reducing bureaucratic barriers and the amount of documentation required. Furthermore, reducing non-tariff barriers (NTBs) is one of the main areas that governments are working on to deepen integration. However, technical regulations such as Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) still prevent some Kazakh exports to the Russian market. For example, Russia has imposed restrictions on the WHO union. The reason for this is the increase in the external tariff from 6.8% to 11.2% on average. It also hurt some of the Kazakh producers who had previously used some of the foreign production for their final goods, as it became more expensive for them to purchase them due to higher external tariffs. Overall, the real return on Kazakh capital was reduced by 0.6% and real wages by 0.5%. The formation of the customs union also leads to a loss of productivity gains for Kazakhstan in the long term, as the country trades less with the rest of the world and focuses only on trade partnerships with Russia, Belarus and the rest of the independent Commonwealth states . (CSI). Kazakhstan will alienate the opportunity for profitable trade as there will be fewer imported technologies and innovations coming from the technologically advanced European Union and other developed countries.