Translated material
Trade about the law
The State Duma will consider the bill "On state regulation of trade activities"
First, the second reading was planned on Wednesday, December 9th. Then a new “exact” term was named - December 11th. On the eve of December 10, on the Duma website of United Russia, a message about the consideration of the bill was marked with gray: this means that the decision on its support was to be made at a meeting of the faction before the launch of the plenary meeting. However, the combat readiness of the United Russia was not useful: the Titans did not agree. Actually, in a vertical conditions, such issues are customary to solve “under the carpet”. But then the conflict between the government and the presidential administration went openly. The government represented by the First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, a well-known lobby for the interests of domestic agricultural producers, harshly ordered: the law is accepted. However, Presidential Assistant Arkady Dvorkovich answered no less harshly: the administration has serious claims to the document, and therefore it is better to transfer the consideration to January. The passions were so heated that the State Duma of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov slightly entered: “I think this law needs to be controlled to the last comma,” he said, making it clear that the editing of the deputies could appear in it at any moment. The parties have something to fight for: according to experts, the law applies to a market with a turnover of 7 trillion rubles. (On the previous stages of the lobbying struggle around the law on trade in The New Times, he wrote in No. 39 of November 2, 2009). The White House and the State Duma controlled by him persistently push the strict regulation of the activities of retail chains in the interests of the Russian manufacturer. At the same time, Viktor Zubkov and Ko are sure that they can safely intervene in the principles of market pricing and indicate food products, how much they should cost. In the current version, the bill is directed frankly against retailers and, in fact, allows you to return to the Soviet practice of price regulation.
The presidential administration, for its part, insists on maintaining market principles and refusing prices. To prevent the adoption of the bill in the current edition, Arkady Dvorkovich sought to transfer voting, and personally came to the State Duma, and initiated the meeting on this law with the head of the Naryshkin administration ... while he achieved another five -day delay.
At the same time, each of the parties is inclined to interpret the delay with the adoption of the bill in its favor. “Fortunately, common sense wins,” said The New Times
Yuri Kobaladze, Managing Director of X5 Retail. “The main legal administration of the president drew attention to the fact that many provisions in it do not comply with either the Civil Code or the Law on Competition.” Victor Zvagelsky, a State Duma deputy, assured the New Times that the delay was associated with purely technical points: according to the deputy, the last amendments to the document were made literally the day before and the text needed a banal pattern. “We cannot afford to make a mistake,” the deputy said. However, there are those who already see the outcome of the battle: “In the current form, this is not a bill, but a garbage dump, where all unrealized complexes of senators, governors and deputies who own enterprises and do not know how to sell their products are not hidden by Dmitry Potapenko, Management Development Group. Inc. “They will not miss the chance to make a beautiful law for themselves.” I am sure: the law will be adopted in the near future in its current anti -market form. ”
But the struggle is not finished yet. And although the date of the next “final” consideration of the bill is scheduled, no one will guarantee that it will take place on December 16. But even if the deputies vote for the law and approve of the Federation Council, the document will have to lie on the table to the president. It is not a fact that Dmitry Medvedev will put his signature ...