Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan to harmonize antimonopoly laws by 2015

Competition is one of the cornerstones of the Eurasian Economic Union that will become operational in January 2015. The statements were made by Nurlan Aldabergenov, Member of the Board (Minister) for Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission as he spoke with reporters during the international antimonopoly conference in Vitebsk.

Top on the agenda of the conference were efforts to streamline antimonopoly laws. Belarus needs to harmonize its laws and regulations with those that already came into force and proved efficient, BelTA reports.

"We suggest that Belarus' antimonopoly agencies and the government adopt a number of new regulations stipulated by the model law on competition that was ratified on the level of the heads of state. These regulations are designed to protect the domestic market, promote products on foreign markets and support domestic businessmen, as well as to save public funds and pull prices down. One of the suggestions is to start issuing warnings to those entities that have not committed any violations yet but whose actions might constitute a violation in the future. This will facilitate business growth and reduce the number of violations and fines," Nurlan Aldabergenov informed.

Other suggestions are related to the conduct of electronic auctions. These suggestions, if adopted, will guarantee equal participation of all entities in the auctions conducted in Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. The national legislation might also provide for some conditions mitigating or aggravating the punishment for violating the laws. "The establishment of holding companies is a good thing, on the one hand, but there is a possibility of their negative impact on competition, the impairment of the rights of small business and market newcomers. Therefore, the national antimonopoly laws should contain provisions forbidding the establishment of state-run companies without a prior consent of an antimonopoly agency," Nurlan Aldabergenov informed.

The international conference on legal aspects of competition on the commodity markets is taking place in Vitebsk on 13-14 November. The conference is meant to advocate competition, discuss ways to improve and implement the monopoly laws and analyze commodity markets. Vitebsk was chosen as a venue for this event in order to give local businesses an opportunity to have their say about the current situation on the cross-border commodity markets and learn about the efforts of the Eurasian Economic Commission to boost competition.

Taking part in the conference are government officials of Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, as well as MPs, businessmen and antimonopoly watchdogs of the CIS member states.