Entrepreneurs got tricked: It will be forbidden to sell goods without additional documents

Belarusian entrepreneurs get deprived of last remaining benefits.

Starting from 1 December 2013 they will not be able to sell goods without documents certifying their quality and safety in accordance with the technical requirements of the Customs Union. The information came from the vice-Prime Minister Piotr Prakapovich, Belta reports.

Earlier there was a simplified procedure in place for certifying that the goods met the requirements, valid until 1 July 2014.

According to the vice-Prime Minister, the decision has already been made and the respective legislative act has been put forward in order to forbid individual entrepreneurs to use this benefit.

“This means that from 1 December entrepreneurs will not be able to sell goods that do not have certifying documents. Everyone who works in the Belarusian market – small, large, medium trading networks and entrepreneurs- will operate according to common rules and will be obliged to have respective documents”, - said Piotr Prakapovich.

According to him, this will be to the benefit of the customers, since they will get the goods, on which they will have all the information available – on the quality, price and safety.

The vice-Prime Minister also noted that entrepreneurs should refuse from working via intermediaries and build up a new operation mechanism, according to which they will reach producers directly. Such a task has been repeatedly voiced by individual entrepreneurs and the transition period, provided by the technical regulations documents “is a good opportunity to establish goods shipment channels directly from producers”.

“It is wrong that the same TV-set from Europe costs more here than in Moscow (from which is it brought), - Piotr Prakapovich emphasized. – There are no grounds for that. There are no reasons for going to Moscow for this TV-set, when it could be imported directly from Europe”.

Intermediaries should be eliminated, the vice-Prime Minister noted. At the same time Piotr Prakapovich added: “We, of course, will use economic methods, analyze the situation and insistently recommend working directly with producers. All the wholesale distributors with the state’s share, submitted to the Ministry of Trade, have been instructed to immediately start purchasing foreign goods directly from manufacturers at lowest prices, at the same time creating a competition to everyone else and bring down the prices of imported goods. Not only will this lower the price o goods here, but will create preconditions for our people not to go for the same goods to Poland, Lithuania etc.”