State selling confiscated goods with no certificates or warranty

"The document is introduced not for the purpose of intimidating or confusing someone, but to protect human life and health, as well as for the prevention of actions misleading consumers of products," explained the meaning of quality certificates to entrepreneurs Deputy Minister of Trade Iryna Narkevich.

"It's confiscated goods. We do not have any certificates or guarantees. It is confiscated goods without anything. It is non-refundable and cannot be bartered. It is up to you to buy it or not," Euroradio was told in one of the stores selling confiscated goods in the center of Minsk.

For about a month individual entrepreneurs have been prohibited from trading without quality certificates. They are told it is the only way to protect the rights of buyers.

Shops selling confiscated goods, which, in theory, are also supposed to be trading in accordance with the Agreement on Common Principles and Rules of Technical Regulations in the Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, sell some of their products without a certificate of conformity.

After driving the entrepreneurs to a corner the state does not notice the perpetrators of the Technical Regulations of the EAEC?

Explaining to the Euroradio how certificates  work, the seller of the confiscated goods contradicts herself:

"The confiscated goods that are subject to certification are, of course, subject to certification, and is sold with certificates. There is a list of property subject to certification. It is children's shoes and clothing, food products, perfumes, personal hygiene products, equipment. Clothing for adults is not certified, so it is sold without certificates ... we are a state-owned company, we are not an SP or private businesse that previously could trade without certificates, we do not have the right to trade without certificates -. commodity goes through several stages, from customs to warehouses and to retail shops. Everything we sell is certified and has the documents. We do not sell uncertified goods."

In fact, clothing and shoes for adults sold in shops like that are NOT certified, while SPs do have to have the appropriate document.

The State Committee for Standardization explained to Euroradio that according to the technical regulations of the EAEC, light industry may be subject to both  certification and declaration of conformity. Certificates are needed for a relatively small group of products, generally the product of the the so-called "first layer", having direct contact with the human body. All other light industry products are subject to declaration of conformity.

The international agreement of the EAEC has a provision that says that all the products that are for sale on the territory of the Customs Union, should pass the necessary assessment procedures.

"The products that falls under the adopted technical regulations (technical regulations) of the Customs Union, is released into circulation in the territory of the Customs Union, provided that it has passed the necessary assessment procedures (confirmation) of compliance, established by the technical regulations of the Customs Union."

It turns out that the confiscated goods' stores have a special status, since these rules do not apply to them?

Euroradio had a very short dialogue with the Belarusian State Institute of Metrology:

Euroradio: Please explain why the SPs need certificates for the sale of clothing and footwear for adults and confiscated goods' stores don't/

BelGIM: No comment.

Meanwhile, deputy head of the department for organization of trade and services at the Ministry of Trade Andrey Myashkou said at the Entrepreneurs' Forum that Belarus does not allow the sale of goods without the documents confirming safety and quality. They say that the conditions are equal for all. Will the confiscated goods' stores be working according to the same rules that SPs?

Photo: vash-vybor-minsk.tam.by