Published: February 6th, 2015

MEF Co-chairman Konstantin Babkin: "Ban on import, on the one hand, is a positive thing, but it will provide only a temporary effect.

It is hardly possible to save the country's economy by prohibition measures only, Russian machine manufacturing has to compete with foreign on equal terms, Co-Chairman of the Moscow Economic Forum, President of the Industrial Union "New Commonwealth" Konstantin Babkin said, commenting on the information that the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev signed a law banning the import into Russia of machine manufacturing goods for state and municipal needs. We are talking primarily about building, municipal equipment, equipment used in the development of mineral deposits.

"Any ban is overkill. Such prohibitions probably should not be used in the long term outlook. We have a different approach. We, machine manufacturers, suggest to have the equal competition conditions between Russian and foreign manufacturers," – Babkin suggested.

"This will allow to maintain cooperation where it is necessary, and to use our strong points where it is necessary. What is an equal competition? Previously I compared competition conditions in Canada and Russia for a tractor plant at the request of our President. It turned out that in Russia they are not equal at all – too high taxes, too expensive loans, the lack of export support, barriers of officials, complex accounting, expensive resources in the internal market", - the industrialist said.

Let us remind that in 2013, the President of the Industrial Union "New Commonwealth" Konstantin Babkin has uploaded into the Internet a detailed economic analysis prepared at the request of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the main conclusion of which was disappointing - relocation of production of tractors from Canada to Russia is economically impractical, because it either leads to direct losses or to increase of product prices (link to the analysis – http://me-forum.ru/media/news/1853/?sphrase_id=4816).

"From my point of view, today we need to solve the problems that lie on the surface and are caused by low competitiveness of our economy. Having very effective competition conditions in Russia and exclude the import - this will not lead us to victory. Yes, ban on import, on the one hand, is a positive thing, but it will provide only a temporary effect," – Babkin emphasized.

Publication source: MEF press service

Source: MEF press service