ArmInfo.The Mantashov Entrepreneurs Union, the Restaurant Association and the Union of Advanced Technologies Enterprises addressed an open letter to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with a proposal not to lift the embargo on the import of Turkish-made products into the country.
In their letter, the entrepreneurs noted that after the departure of companies importing goods of Turkish origin from the Armenian market, Armenian producers increased their production in many areas, opening new jobs, trying to satisfy market demand. Under these conditions, the opening of the Turkish goods market will put the newly established companies, which are trying to replace the demand for those goods in Armenia by already investing in import substitution, in a difficult situation. According to the letter, one of the reasons for the non-extension of the ban is that in any case, when the certificate of the country of origin is changed, Turkish goods continue to be imported into the Republic of Armenia in the same volumes. "First of all, we would like to emphasize that, according to statistics, there has been a significant reduction in import volumes, in particular, the import of Turkish goods to Armenia has decreased by 3-4 times. In addition, claims for a change in the certificate of the country of origin are not substantiated, since there are no statistics or evidence on the quantity or volume of goods imported under such certificates. Moreover, persons who have data on the substitution of certificates of origin are obliged to contact law enforcement agencies, since forgery of a certificate of the country of origin is a criminal offense.
According to the business community, the ban on imports of Turkish goods did not cause any turmoil in the Armenian economy, as Turkish goods were quickly replaced by products of both local and foreign origin. Therefore, there is no economic justification for resuming imports from Turkey. But, as the authors of the letter believe, besides the economic side of the issue, there are moral and emotional aspects of the problem, since Turkey provided moral and material support to the Azerbaijani army in committing crimes against Artsakh, Armenia and the Armenian people.
Based on the above-mentioned, Armenian businessmen proposed to exclude the issue of resuming supplies for at least 5 years. Moreover, it is necessary to apply additional restrictions on the import and consumption of goods of Turkish origin. Thus, in order to make the ban on the import of goods of Turkish origin more effective, in addition to the customs ban, the entrepreneurs proposed to introduce a ban on their sale.
The entrepreneurs also proposed to prohibit the sale in Armenia of goods produced under the trademarks of Turkish companies, regardless of the country of their production, which will also make it more effective for the relevant state bodies to exercise control over the activities of Turkish companies in the Armenian market.
