Future Head of the new antimonopoly body in Belarus visited FAS

On 15 July 2016 an official delegation of the Republic of Belarus had a meeting with top executes of the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

The Minister of Trade of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Koltovich, announced that “a Presidential Decree of laid the foundation for establishing a separate antimonopoly body in Belarus. The Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade will start functioning on 8 September 2016”.

“We are ready to offer any required assistance to the new antimonopoly body” assured the Head of FAS Igor Artemiev.

The Head of Russian antimonopoly body emphasized that “apart from the Eurorasian format we should enhance our bilateral relations” and invited his colleagues to take part in an international event – the Competition Week in Russia on 26 - 28 September in Moscow and the II All-Russian Research-to-Practice Conference on “Antimonopoly Policy: Science, Practice, and Education” in December.

Igor Artemiev informed about a historic signing of the Memorandum by the antimonopoly bodies of the BRICS countries, under the frame of which joint Working Group on analyzing competition in the socially important sectors of BRICS economies. He invited representatives of the new body to be engaged in combating abuses by transnational corporations.

Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovsky discussed with his Belorussian colleagues precedent, high-profile antimonopoly cases investigated in Russia, the established judicial practice, FAS structure, competition policy and the new tariff policy. He expressed confidence that creating the new body will reinforces already consolidated partner relations between Russia and Belarus.  

Deputy Head of FAS Maxim Ovchinnikov discussed the principles of economic analysis of pricing practices in terms of compliance to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, the antimonopoly standards, specifics of applying the costs method, and shared FAS experience in control over public defence procurement.  

Other speakers who reported on the current FAS work included the Head of FAS Legal Department, Artem Molchanov; FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenischev; Deputy Heads of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Maxim Degtyaryov and Ekaterina Uryukina; and Deputy Head of FAS  Department for Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition, Yana Sklyarova.

The parties expressed mutual interest in developing bilateral relations. In accord with a proposal by Vladimir Koltovich an important step will be signing a Memorandum on Cooperation between FAS and Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic of Belarus.

“In view of the discussions, in the near future FAS shall draft the Memorandum, outlining the key areas of cooperation, particularly, combating cartels, unfair competition, violations in the pharmaceutical field and retail sales of food products, as well as cooperation in terms of training Belarusian antimonopoly staff”, pointed out Lesya Davydova, the Head of FAS Department for International economic Cooperation.  

It is expected that the Memorandum shall be signed at the International Competition Week in Russia in September 2016.