Private Trade Restrictions in Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarusian authorities ruled to launch a broad campaign against the retail trade, first assistant to the Minister of trade Mikhail Sventitsky told “Rosbalt”. Deputy Minister said that it is an absurdity when one third of the whole trade turnover in the country falls on the shadow sector.

As a matter of fact, this policy was started well before its official proclamation. Over the recent couple of weeks Minsk authorities ordered to take away hundreds of kiosks, belonging to private entrepreneurs and shut down the “Baikalsky” marketplace. The Belarusian Entrepreneurial Union spoke against the clampdown on the businessmen’s rights. According to the Union’s chair Alexander Potupa “the authorities are simply mocking at the representatives of the liberal economy”.

Moreover, the population also speaks in favor of the retail sellers. Market prices in Belarus, especially those on mass goods, are way below the official ones. So the residents of the Zavodskoi district of Minsk went for a meeting in the capital, urging the authorities to cease arbitrariness. “We aren’t eager to go to state stores, trading in costly and poor quality stuff,” – reads the text of the meeting’s resolution.