Kazakh manufacturers do not want to produce products labeled “Made in the EAEU”

Among the signatories are associations of trade enterprises, developers, chemists, elevator workers, food workers, electrical machine builders, field farmers, poultry farmers, designers, cement and soft drink manufacturers, and so on.

The reason for the appeal was the EMPS meeting held on October 26 in Bishkek, at which, contrary to the position of Kazakh business, a declaration on the further development of economic processes within the EAEU until 2030 and for the period until 2045 was approved. This declaration, in particular, includes the measure “development of technical regulation and standardization within the framework of EAEU law, ensuring the production of safe and competitive products.”

It would seem – what’s wrong with high-quality and competitive products? Moreover, Kazakhstan, within the framework of the EAEU Treaty, has been pursuing a unified policy on technical regulation and ensuring product safety for more than ten years; the entire industry has adapted to these requirements. However, according to manufacturers, they will now be forced to reveal their advanced technologies and trade secrets.

“The Quality Concept developed by Rospotrebnadzor includes provisions to ensure adequate product quality by forcing manufacturers and importers to disclose all internal technical documentation, including recipes, unique production developments, solutions that constitute a trade secret and create conditions for plagiarism of advanced technologies,” the appeal says. - In the current geopolitical situation, these requirements create direct conditions for circumventing sanctions for some EAEU countries, respectively, the threat of secondary sanctions for Kazakhstan: prohibitions and restrictions on foreign trade (for finished products, raw materials and components) and banking operations, reducing the investment attractiveness of Kazakhstan and the activity of foreign investors, deterioration of the country's image, etc."

Moreover, Kazakh producers are confident that the next step will be to promote exports under the common sign of the “Eurasian Quality Mark”.

“The short-sighted and indifferent behavior of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan led to the fact that at the meeting of the EEC Board, scheduled for November 21, the EEC has already introduced an initiative to promote exports under the general sign “EURASIAN QUALITY SIGN” and the label “MADE IN THE EAEU”!!! – it is said in appeal. - According to the domestic business of Kazakhstan, this is a utopia for the Kazakh economy. We are competitors to Russian manufacturers both within the EAEU and beyond, and in no case should we adopt a unified policy when presenting domestic products when exporting by applying unified marking and quality mark of the EAEU. In the current geopolitical situation in the world, worse advertising and sabotage for the Kazakh industry cannot be imagined!!! No need to guess - the next step of the Russian Federation will be to dictate to us what to produce and what not, referring to its export potential. Dear Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich, having not received support from the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and also realizing the complete lack of understanding of what is happening by the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, we ask you to personally protect the Kazakh industry and under no circumstances SIGN the Declaration in the current edition."

On the agenda of the meeting of the EEC Board, scheduled for November 21, the 16th item is a discussion of the report of the member of the Board (Minister) for Technical Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission Viktor Nazarenko “On the promotion of the “Eurasian Quality Mark” and the “Made in the EAEU” label for goods produced on the territory of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union."

The report itself says that the initiative for this promotion belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, when asked about the position of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the head of the department, Arman Shakkaliev, said: none of the above will happen, and if someone has any fantasies, he will be grounded.

“There will be no common trademarks,” the minister assured. “This is not in the law of the Union, we do not have this in our plans, or in any form at all. This is not the subject of the agreement. With regard to integration, we have repeatedly We spoke, and the head of state spoke, and the head of government - we are guided by the principle of economic feasibility, rationalism. We do not envisage any expansion of powers of either the bodies of the union or the agreement and will not consider it. That is, we will never consider any general trademarks or quality issues. to be considered at the supranational level. This is the first paragraph. Paragraph two - no one ever has any right, neither legal nor moral, to request development documentation, know-how, engineering documents, and so on. Because there is no such thing anywhere in the world. For this In order to evaluate a product whether it is safe or not, a sample of the finished product is taken and tests are carried out. That's it. What they demand there, show me, based on what drawings and so on, this is all from the evil one. Paragraph three – our entire declaration is related to the law of the Union. There is no Union law, there is no subject for discussion. The opinion of our ministry and the government as a whole is that there will be no expansion of powers. If anyone has any fantasies about this at different levels of negotiations, then we will always ground it on our sinful earth, on the norms of our agreement, our obligations that we have already signed. Technical regulation is a story about safety. This has nothing to do with trademarks or copyright ownership. Safety, period!"