SCC justifies itself

The State Customs Committee denies the fact that Belarus is involved in re-export of Russian oil products.

This was announced by chairman of the State Customs Committee Alexander Shpilevski on June 14. Russian Ambassador to Minsk Alexander Surikov has recently speculated on Belarus’s possible re-export of the Russian solvents and thinners to the West.

The diplomat said that the Russian side drew attention to the the customs report saying that Belarus exported more petroleum products than could actually be produced from oil, BelTA informs.

"All deliveries of petroleum products comply with the agreements. As chairman of the Customs Committee, I claim: there’s no illegal shipment abroad, it simply cannot be," said Alexander Shpilevski in response to the allegations.

According to him, "everything that goes in and out of the country is strictly controlled by the customs officers and does not violate the existing agreements."

Head of State Customs Committee of Belarus also pointed out that during the talks the Russian side had never raised that issue and expressed no complaints in question to the official Minsk.

Belarus increased exports of oil products by 1.7-fold to 4.78 million tons in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year.