Entrepreneurs did not start working in Zhodzina

Over a half of the sales outlets did not work in the marketplace in Zhodzina today.

The charter97.org web-site learnt that this took place without the announcement of a strike, spontaneously. Entrepreneurs of the Stadziedauski marketplace in Zhodzina gathered in groups and decided what to do. Some started opening, some took independent decision to go on strike. As a result of a spontaneous protest against the fiscal policy of the authorities and the new rules of trade, which question the existence of small entrepreneurship in general, the majority of entrepreneurs in Zhodzina did not come to the marketplace at all.

Before 12.00 there were only about 30% of the outlets open. At the same time a police van was noticed in the city near the marketplace (rare thing for Zhodzina). For some reason there was also a police minivan near the place for holding mass events.

We would remind that intensified inspections, which go together with the confiscation of goods under different pretexts, started in the marketplaces around Belarus on 1 November. It has recently came out that Minsk authorities undermined the forum of entrepreneurs, scheduled for 25 November, where individual entrepreneurs were going to discuss the situation with the introduction of new trade rules in the next month. They are discontent with the fact that starting from 1 December 2013 they will not be able to sell the goods without documents, certifying their quality and safety according to the requirements of the Customs Union’s technical regulations “On safety of light industry goods”.

The introduction of the requirements of the Customs Union’s technical regulations has already caused a protest. Strikes of entrepreneurs took place in early July at marketplaces and trading centers of Belarus. Entrepreneurs expressed their discontent with the regulations, having claimed that it would put them on the verge of surviving, since it obliged them to take an expensive certification procedure for light industry goods.