OREANDA-NEWS. November 26, 2009. A meeting of the Expert Council for developing Competition in Machine-Building at the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) took place, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, informed the Council about the new norms of the Russian antimonopoly legislation.

He reminded that in the end of October another component of the "second antimonopoly package" came into force - the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which clarified and tightened liability for participation in cartels and recidivist abuse of market dominance as the most dangerous violations of the antimonopoly legislation.

At the meeting of the Expert Council the reports on the situation in the Russian car-making industry were given by Mr Koupov, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Industry Control; Ms Morozova, the Head of the Department for Relations with Government Agencies and Non-Government Organizations, of "Mercedes-Benz RUS" CJSC; Mr Tereschenko, Director for Strategic Development of "Atlant-M" International Car Holding; Mr Karavayev, Deputy General Director for Strategic Development of "SIBUT-Russian Tyres" OJSC; and Mr Serezhenkin, Deputy Executive Director of the "Association of Russian Car-Makers" Non-Commercial Partnership.

Talking about the policy for protecting competition in the Russian car-making industry, Mr Koupov, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Industry Control, pointed out at the ongoing problems associated with state procurement that today the problem, where most of the violations were related to creating preferential conditions for a particular bidder or several bidders, and restricting access to the bidding.

As a representative example, he discussed the case of the Federal Medical-and-Biological Agency (FMBA Russia) that violated the antimonopoly requirement in organizing competitive bidding for supply of automotive equipment.

At the same time Mr Koupov expressed his hope that joint efforts of FAS Russia and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce towards supporting the Russian car industry should stabilize the situation in the industry and have positive impact upon purchasing ability of the Russian population as well as capacity of the Russian car manufacturers.

Maria Morozova, the Head of the Department for Relations with Government Agencies and Non-Government Organizations, of "Mercedes-Benz RUS" CJSC, discussed developing competition and improving competitive ability of the Russian car-making industry. She outlined the main common interests for the Russian and foreign manufacturers and emphasized that competition means that the rules of the game are simple, transparent and equal for everybody.

Participants showed the greatest interest to the presentation of Alexei Tereschenko, Director for Strategic Development of "Atlant-M" International Car Holding: "Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and the risks for fair competition in the Russian car-making industry".

He said that from 1st January 2010 customs duties for the cars imported by legal entities would be unified and from 1st July 2010 the customs border between the Russian Federation and Belarus would also be transparent. At the same time duties upon physical persons will not be unified because under the law importing goods by physical persons is not classified as foreign trade.

It can adversely affect the Russian car-making industry and result in drop in production on the Russian assembly plants, decreasing sales by official dealers, diminishing officially registered car import to Russia and, as a consequence, considerable decline of the flow of income to the federal budget.

In his turn, Igor Karavayev, Deputy General Director for Strategic Development of "SIBUT-Russian Tyres" OJSC, supported a proposal of the previous speaker to promptly approach the Government of the Russian Federation about this issue.

He added that development of the tyre industry would require selective consolidation of competitive manufacturers.

Mr Serezhenkin, Deputy Executive Director of the "Association of Russian Car-Makers" Non-Commercial Partnership, made a presentation "The Prospects for Development of the Russian Car-Making Industry". According to Mr Serezhenkin, the following measures are necessary to ensure a high level of production localization:

- Providing state support only to the investors who set up the enterprises producing no fewer than 250 cars per year;

- Modernization of the majority of existing enterprises for manufacturing car components;

- Stimulating new enterprises for manufacturing car components;

- Developing production of raw materials and supplies, complying with the international standards DIN and ASTM, and able to meet price competition with their foreign analogues.

Summing up the meeting, members of the Expert Council supported the work of FAS Russia and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for developing competition in increasing competitive ability of the Russian car industry and encouraged further improvement of the mechanisms of interaction between FAS Russia and market participants.