The Eurasian Economic Union is stalled at the start. Businessmen from Russia’s Kaliningrad region faced with this already at the end of last year. In December, the Belarusian customs officers detained 29 trucks that were bringing electronic equipment to Russia via our country.
All the goods were confiscated for the benefit of Belarus. At the same time, the Kaliningrad firms msy not even get a legal confirmation of this fact.
Our channel received this video from the Kaliningrad truck drivers. The photos were taken on a mobile phone at the temporary storage of the Ashmiany customs. Hundreds of television sets are in the room, and the drivers were not even explained why their goods were detained.
The First National Channel broadcast a story which clearly explained the reasons for detention. Customs officers believe that the TVs are not produced in the Kaliningrad region, but are brought from China by sea and imported with forged documents to the remaining territory of the Customs Union.
To counter this story, The Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce invited Belarusian journalists to visit the area and see firsthand that, actually, everything looks different than seen through the lens of the Belarusian state TV.
Among other things, BT showed this house near the Kaliningrad port. In it, according to the state journalists, electronic equipment was once produced, but production stopped after the fire.
Alexei, ROSBALT employee:
“There has never been our production. When we saw a reportage on the Belarusian TV, we found this building. It has nothing to do with us.”
Phony companies, according to BT, are working all around the Kaliningrad region. We are now in the Gvardeisk, which is about 40 kilometers from Kaliningrad. Actually, in this house, at Stantsionnaya 6, our state-employed colleagues suspected existence of the fake company producing televisions. But, in fact, the manufacturers’ address simply coincides with this one. And our colleagues were too lazy to check this fact.
Egidijus ULČINAS, chief designer of the Telebalt company:
“We get all the parts in our warehouse. We then supply them on the line, according to the plan of production and manufacture. We have a separate area where we produce electronic TV boards.”
Only electronic boards are local manufactured in Kaliningrad TVs, but, according to Russian law, this is enough to consider the goods localized and, accordingly, move it freely within the territory of the single economic space. Local producers suspect that confiscation of their goods by the the Belarusian customs is the result of unfair competition from the Belarusian factories producing similar electronic goods which, unlike their Russian colleagues, do not have the privileges existing in Kaliningrad. Incidentally, one of the charges of the Belarusian customs is non-payment of the value added tax.
Victor BORISENKO, CEO of the Telebalt company:
“If someone thinks we don’t pay the VAT, I declare to the customs authorities of the Republic of Belarus: We are paying it. why did we have our goods confiscated?”
The Kaliningrad manufacturers have already calculated the amount of damage done by the actions of the Belarusian customs – RUR 250 million. That was $5 million at the beginning of December.
To resolve the situation,the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as officials became involved in the matter. The Kaliningrad customs says their Belarusian colleagues had no right to detain trucks with electronics whatsoever, because they pass through Belarus in transit. Generally speaking, if Russians have no claims about the product, Belarusians should have none as well. Belarusian courts do not provide any answers at all, as according to the the documents the gppds were confiscated from unidentified persons. So far there have been seen no positive changes in the situation.
Marina FITSAK, vice president of the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce:
“This situation can be decided only at the governmental level. After all, there is no fault of our own or Belarusian enterprises. Here, it is necessary to solve the problem at the totally different level.”
The Kaliningrad company is solving the problem at its own level and doing it as best it can. There is no hope that they will have the confiscated equipment or even money back. Instead, the producers work out new routes of deliveryfrom Kaliningrad to, as they call it here, the great Russia.
Victor BORISENKO, CEO of the Telebalt company:
“We were not the only company affected by this to have moved to transit through Lithuania and Latvia to send goods to Moscow. I know even furniture manufacturers and meat processors doing the same … Many of them started sending their goods through Latvia.”
But this route is expensive and time-consuming for the Kaliningrad businessmen. As a result, local factories are forced to curtail production. Volumes of television and other equipment production were also significantly reduced as a result of the Russian ruble devaluation. The problems at the Belarusian customs clearly indicate that for now the Eurasian Economic Union is more of a populist structure. No practical use of it is evident, while the harm from non-coordinated government action is quite clear.
Aliaksei Minchonak, belsat.eu/en/
