Bellegprom initiates higher import duties on leather footwear in Customs Union
NSK. October 15. KAZINFORM The Belarusian light industry concern Bellegprom has contacted the Customs Union Commission with a proposal to raise the import duty on several kinds of leather footwear up to 20%, at least €2.7 per pair, Bellegprom's press service told BelTA.
Accoridng to BelTA, the new import duty would be as large as the import duty Belarus had before joining the Customs Union. Since then the Belarusian duty has been reduced to the level of the Russian duty - 10%.
Vyacheslav Mirusin, Head of the Leather and Footwear Industry Coordination and Development Office of the concern, said that the import of footwear with natural leather top has increased by 1.5-10 times. The average price for the imports is virtually lower than the average market price on the home market.
If the import duty is raised, Bellegprom expects customers to turn towards quality Belarusian footwear instead of poor quality imports.
Lyudmila Tyaglova, Deputy Chairwoman of Bellegprom, said that the measure was supposed to help Belarusian producers by putting them and foreign manufacturers into equal conditions. She stressed it was not a prohibitive or restrictive measure. The measure will help re-distribute 5% of the earnings of footwear importers in favor of the budgets of the Customs Union member states.
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