Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan to prevent government contract claims

MINSK, 21 September (BelTA) – Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan will work together to remove all possible mutual pretensions in what concerns state purchase contracts, Economy Minister of Belarus Nikolai Snopkov told media on 21 September.

In March 2012 Russia adopted a resolution which set additional requirements to purchase orders for the needs of federal executive bodies demanding the use of the worsted cloth of the Russian manufacture in the production of service uniform supplied to the country.

As for the measures taken to secure equal competitive rights for Belarus on the Russian market, Nikolai Snopkov said: “We discussed the issue with Bellegprom and convinced the Eurasian Economic Commission that there was a blatant violation of the government procurement agreement. The commission decided to cancel such withdrawals from the national regime.”

“We were happy to see an objective assessment of the situation from the international experts of the Eurasian Economic Commission. But we should understand that every coin has two sides. The same pretensions might be placed by our counterparts in Russia and Kazakhstan. At present the three countries have agreed to compile the lists of possible mutual claims in order to be able to remove them to keep the government procurement agreement observed,” the minister added.