The worldwide financial crisis caused the Belarusian government to pay closer attention to imports. It initiated a new crusade against them.
Ministry of Trade prepared the list of imported goods, disappearing of which “will not influence greatly country’s consumer market”, according to the officials
The list includes over 30 items of both food and non-food merchandise.. It concerns import of beer, non-alcoholic beverages, chocolate, cheeses, ice-cream, bread and other food items, while TV sets, bicycles, furniture and other non-food products are also listed. The Ministry of Trade has decided to reduce the volume of import of aforementioned goods by half by the November-December 2008.
Moreover, if a company imports or stores the goods included in the list in rented facilities, contracts with this company shall be terminated since it imports “groundless” goods. Furthermore, in case of goods in the “black” list, it was suggested to introduce instalment payments during 180 days, which makes the delivery of goods unattractive for foreign companies.
One of the Belarusian importers commented the situation: “Foreign producers would not go for it. It is highly unlikely that somebody agrees to wait half a year while the Belarusian importer pays for delivered goods. Even in better times such instalments were never offered to us”.
One of the solutions seems to be intermediate trade when a dealer buys goods shipped into the country and resells it to the importer for a higher price.
Local authorities are ordered to impose additional measures on limitation of services and goods imports. For instance, authorities in Viciebsk have informed about their decision in their letter“On measures on minimization of the negative impact of world’s financial crisis on socio-economic development of the Viciebsk region” and on the necessity to comply with city’s forecasting indicators.
In some regions the importers are administratively obliged to export goods in the amount of at least 25 per cent of their import turnover.
Authorities try to link the financial crisis with their attempts to preserve foreign currency in the country as well as to sell the contents of Belarusian enterprises’ storehouses. It concerns mostly bicycles, soap, TV sets, and watches which have been selling poorly both in Belarusian and foreign markets. However, during the present crisis foreign markets could hardly increase their capacities for Belarusian products.
On November, 25 2008 Alaksandar Łukašenka ordered to save country’s currency reserves and to produce all goods which could be manufactured locally in Belarus.
The Ministry of Trade assures that imports that are not produced in Belarus (seafood, coffee, tea) will be fully credited. Authorities intend to enforce control at the consumer market in order to preserve a fail-safe system of supplying products. On the other hand, Belarusian manufacturers and local trade offices are obliged to supply stores and warehouses with the full variety of goods produced in Belarus. Belarusian banks are asked to credit these procurement activities in 2009.
So, slogan “Buy Belarusian!” is now being imposed by country’s authorities in full swing.
Source: Web site NAVINY, tut.by.
This article appeared in
Belarusian Review, Vol. 20, No. 4
---------------------------------------------
Copyright 2008 Belarusian Review
All rights reserved.
belarusianreview@hotmailcom
15 january 2009
Author: