Russia brought new charges against Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

In Moscow consultations of the Russian and Belarusian parties on import of Russian-made cigarettes to Belarus were held. The Belarusian party representatives declared their intention to introduce the institution of exclusive importer which functions are to be implemented by one of the state-owned enterprises. The Russian party declared that introduction of the state monopoly instead of the quotas on the cigarette import contradicts the Russian – Belarusian trade economic agreement.

“The Russian party considers that Belarus only formally implements clauses of the Russian – Belarusian trade economic agreement. We suppose that Russian cigarettes will be given access to the Belarusian market but in the amount and range which are negligible for the Russian producers”, the PRIME-TASS quotes its source from the Russian delegation.

“We suppose that Belarus is going to open its market to the tobacco products of a high cost segment because cigarettes of low and medium cost segments will not withstand the competition with the Russian-made products of the same kind. Thus the situation with the tobacco produce import has not changed for the better and we consider this as breaching of the contract commitments by the Belarusian side”, the Russian party representative reported.

At the same time, according to the Belarusian delegation representative, introduction of the institution of exclusive importer does not violate the rights of Russian deliverers. “In case the offered scheme is adopted by the head of the state it will be much easier for tobacco produce deliverers to work in Belarus. We are going to open the market completely. In his cooperation with Russian companies the exclusive importer will be governed only by the market demand .Any Russian firm has the right of claiming the exclusive importer’s action within the legislative framework incase its rights are breached”, declared the source from the Belarusian delegation.

“We can’t definitely name the enterprise which is to become the exclusive importer. The Belarustorg is supposed to be appointed but the corresponding edict has not been signed, yet. Thus it is too early to give the names”, the Belarusian representative specified.