BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/06/2007

Belarus says EU's scrapping of tariffs will hurt ordinary Belarusians

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: The European Union's decision to scrap preferential trade tariffs for Belarusian goods will only end up hurting ordinary Belarusians, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The decision Friday by the EU to withdraw tariffs because of Minsk's failure to reform labor rights will increase the cost of some Belarus goods - mostly farm machinery and chemicals - sold to European markets. It will not, however, affect oil and gas exports that pass through Belarus from Russia to Europe.

"We consider the decision to be absolutely groundless, absolutely counterproductive and - I'm not afraid of this word - absolutely anti-people at its core, inasmuch as it will be a direct blow to the interests of the common Belarusian citizen, about whose well-being the European Union pretends to care," ministry spokesman Andrei Popov said.

The move is the latest from the EU targeting the government of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The bloc has cut most government contacts, imposed financial sanctions and a travel ban on Lukashenko and other leaders it says have rigged elections and quashed opposition.

Alexander Yarashuk, head of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Labor Unions, said the country could lose between ?200 million and ?400 million (US$270 million-US$540 million) annually with the loss of the tariffs. He praised the decision, however, as an "adequate answer" to government prohibitions on labor demonstrations and other forms of protests.

"Now Lukashenko will get that Belarus stands in the same row as Burma, where there is a military dictatorship and slave labor," Yarashuk said.

Belarus' economy is largely Soviet-style, centrally-controlled and has been heavily reliant on cheap energy supplies from its main ally, Russia.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/18/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-EU-Sanctions.php