Participation of the AEB in the meeting of the working group of the Eurasian Economic Commission on assessing the regulatory impact of draft decisions of the EEC

Deputy Chairman of the Association of European Business Maria Karas took part in the 115th meeting of the working group of the Eurasian Economic Commission on assessing the regulatory impact of draft decisions of the EEC. During this meeting, the AEB presented the position of the business community of the Republic of Belarus on the phytosanitary requirements for tobacco products.

The draft decision of the EEC provided for the classification of raw tobacco and tobacco waste as regulated products with a high phytosanitary risk, as well as the establishment of special quarantine phytosanitary requirements for them. During the meeting, representatives of the business community voiced reasonable comments regarding the proposed regulation, in particular, the insufficient level of scientific elaboration of the information contained in the information and analytical note, and as a consequence of the unreasonableness of the establishment of regulation.

It was also announced that in the event of the introduction of these norms, the loss of the tobacco business in the Russian Federation alone will amount to more than 15 million US dollars per year due to the need to undergo additional control, to make changes in the composition of tobacco bags for the manufacture of tobacco products, as well as to adjust supply chains that will take over a year.