Russia may block access for imported cars from Belarus

"Russia might well block the access for imported cars from Belarus as far as it is a direct competitor to the Russian car industry," said Alexander Skolubovich, Director of Atlant-M Holpy, an official representative of Mazda and Land Rover in Belarus.

The same view is upheld by Russian expert Oleg Datskiv. In his words, in case of a big inflow of cars from Belarus that are imported from abroad, Russian carmakers might address the government with a request to close "this Belarusian window". For instance, registration of such cars might be canceled.

On 1 July, when customs duties on foreign cars imported to Belarus by individuals are to be raised, the buying fever regarding second hand cars is believed to calm down, and then used car retailers might find it difficult to sell them. "According to the market laws, if the supply outpaces the demand, the prices go down," Director General of the Belarusian Automobile Association (BAA) Lyudmila Shabanova said.

In her words, the automobile market saw the same situation a year ago. Then ahead of the introduction of customs duties on cars imported to the country by individuals, Belarus' market was flooded with second hand cars from Europe. Russia, however, let to its market only those cars which met at least Euro-4 standards and were imported to Belarus before 1 January 2010. That caused a sharp drop in prices for used cars in the country on 1 July 2010.