Belarusian duty of 300% harms Russian brands.
This is the opinion of the Russian Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Consumer Electronic and Computer Equipment (RAGEK) that asked the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to influence the situation.
This is a duty on the import into the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEC) of small devices with LCD screen – e-books, DVD-players and multimedia car audio systems.
In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister, the Russian Association said that the current fee adopted by the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) last August, led to a sharp rise in the cost of the above products.
Previously, the fee was 16%, and now they have to pay 10% of the customs value, but not less than 25.5 euros per item.
It turns out that the importation duty of inexpensive players and e-books reaches 190-300% of the customs value, noted in RAGEK.
At the same time, this equipment is not produced in the EAEC. The result was not only a rise in price of goods, but also increase in illegal imports. Most affected by this are Russian technology brands produced in Southeast Asia, said representative of RAGEK Anton Guskov.
The duty was initiated by the Belarusian side. It was assumed that it would support local manufacturers of television sets. Now, many large companies make TVs at Russian plants – among them are Samsung, LG, Rolsen, and Vestel.
As a solution to the problem, RAGEK offers to leave the current duty for large-screen TVs (over 22 inches) and for all the others to set the rate of not more than 10%.
