Traders accuse Moscow of 'gangster logic'

• Source: Global Times
• [08:12 July 22 2009]
• Comments

By Guo Qiang in Beijing and Zhang Guangzheng in Moscow

Chinese merchants have called for a tough stance against Russia following the closure of Moscow's biggest market that forced 60,000 Chinese traders out of business, as China's vice minister of commerce departs for Moscow today with a special delegation as part of efforts to tackle the issue.

The Chinese delegation traveling to Moscow includes officials from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Administration of Taxation and trade officials from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

Cherkizovsky Market is the biggest wholesale market in Moscow, and a large number of its traders are from China, Vietnam and Central Asia. It was shut down temporarily on June 29 by the city government.

A senior industry leader yesterday expressed strong opposition toward the Russian government using "gangster logic" to justify its closure of Cherkizovsky Market.

"It is Russia's gangster logic that led to the closure of the market,"  Xie Rongfang, general secretary of the Wenzhou Shoe Industry Association, said.

Merchants from Zhejiang Province were the worst hit by the market closure, and hundreds of shoe makers in the region are likely to go bankrupt.

"Russians need to sit down and think what will happen to the Russian people if all Chinese-made goods are denied entry into its market,"  Xie said, adding that Russians would be bereft of good quality and cheap clothes and food.

The Russian government's decided last month to destroy $2 billion worth of smuggled goods from China. Closing Cherkizovsky Market sparked panic and despair among tens of thousands of Chinese merchants, at least 150 of whom were arrested in the closure.