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Kazakhstan and Belarus not ready to have common consumer market control body with Russia

"Even in the European Union, which had common regulation norms, each country was building its own architecture of state administration in this area"

MOSCOW, July 31 (Itar-Tass) - Kazakhstan and Belarus are not yet ready to create a single consumer market regulation authority within the Customs Union with Russia, Russia’s chief sanitary doctor and head of the consumer rights protection agency (Rospotrebnadzor), Gennady Onishchenko said on Wednesday. He said Kazakhstan was just beginning to set up an authority like Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor, while in Belarus consumer rights protection competences were distributed among three independent agencies.

Onishchenko noted that even in the European Union, which had common regulation norms, each country was building its own architecture of state administration in this area. “So far, we are following the same path,” he said.

As concerns common sanitary norms within the Customs Union, Onishchenko touched on the problem of the so-called “offshore zones” harboring low-quality products from Poland and other countries, for instance, at the border with Belarus. “Then, these products are brought via Belarus to Russia,” he said, noting that the overall balance of Kazakhstan- and China-made products in Russia had increased though the flow of Chinese goods reaching Russia via Kazakhstan was going down.

He added that Russia was not going to revoke its sanitary standards, adding that national control was also needed over various services, such as medical, kindergartens and schools.