Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
July 23 2014
Products from Azerbaijan receive “registration” in Armenia
23 July 2014 – 6:37pm
Unfortunately, on the bazaars of Russia, along with hight-quality and
legitimate products, dubious products also can be found. Amongh the
latter are products supplied from the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan, in particular, canned vegetables and jams made in
Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the labels, they were produced and
packed in Stepanakert – Khankendy, an Azerbaijani city, the
administrative center of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which in Soviet
times was named after, Stepan Shaumyan, and when Azerbaijan gained its
sovereignty, was returned to the city got back its historical name.
These preserves are being produces and exported to Russia by JSC
“Artsakh Fruit”, also based in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and
registered in Yerevan. The partners “Artsakh Fruit” in Russia are,
according to the company’s website, Moscow CJSC “Crown” and Krasnodar
LLC “Yugdekor.”
The full address of manufacturing and packaging, indicated on the
company’s products such as letcho and blackberry jam, attracted the
attention of VK. “Artsakh Fruit” decided on the labeling of the
product produced in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, ie de jure
in Azerbaijan, in contradiction with the official position of not only
the Republic of Azerbaijan, but also that of Armenia: the labels
indicate “Armenia, Stepanakert” and “RA Stepanakert”(ie Hankendi).
These addresses are non-existent. All the world countries recognize
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts as
sovereign territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian armed forces
and hence Khankendi, too. The self-proclaimed “Nagorno Karabakh
Republic”, by contrast, is not recognized by any country in the world,
including Armenia, which exacerbates and complicates the situation
lwith abeled products from Karabakh, while the only legitimate
labeling of such a product from the point of view of international law
is “Azerbaijan, Khankendi.”
VK has decided to ask the experts which Russian laws the manufacturer
violates, when presenting Hankendi as part of Armeniaon on their
products.
As explained in the Society for Consumer Protection, a buyer who
purchased such goods has “the right to make a claim, demanding a
refund due to the fact that he has been provided false information
about the address of the manufacturer.” It is possible to get
additional compensation from the company. “If therefore any damages
were caused to the consumer, he also has the right to claim
reimbursement. For example, it may be the moral suffering, if this
person convincingly proves that if he knew that the product originates
from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, nwould not buy it,” the
Society for Consumer Protection explains.
This case is regulated by Articles 10, 13 and 15 of the Federal Law
2300-I from July 7, 1992, “On Protection of Consumer Rights. For
example, Art. 10, Part 2, inter alia, states that “information about
the goods (works, services) on a mandatory basis should contain …
information … about the date and place of manufacture and packaging,
… address (location), (name) manufacturer (executor, seller,
authorized organization or an authorized individual entrepreneur, or
importer).” This article obliges the manufacturer to indicate correct
addresses relating to the goods.
Art. 13 establishes the liability for incorrect information on
the product. Art. 13, Part 2 states: “Unless otherwise provided by
law, the damages caused to the consumer shall be reimbursed in full in
addition to the penalty (fine), established by law or contract.”
Art. 15 speaks of compensation for non-pecuniary damage. “Moral
damage to the consumer as a result of violation by the manufacturer
(executor, seller, authorized body or authorized by an individual
entrepreneur, importer) of the consumer’s rights, protected by the
laws and regulations of the Russian Federation, must be compensated by
the tortfeasor in the presence of his guilt. The amount of
compensation for moral damage is determined by the court and does not
depend on the amount of compensation for the property damage.”
However, the fact of “including” Khankendi to Armenia has a more
subtle economic dimension. As the head of the laboratory of the Gaidar
Institute for International Trade Economic Policy, Alexander Knobel,
notes, by this way the company gets the customs privileges for which
it actually has no rights, which means that the importation of goods
into Russia is illegal. “Armenia is a member of the WTO with its the
internationally recognized borders, without Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia
has an agreement with Armenia on free trade zone within the CIS, and
this agreement was also signed within internationally recognized
borders, again without Nagorno-Karabakh. This means that one cannot
apply zero tariffs on products produced outside of Armenia in its
legal boundaries – if only because the goods has already illegally
crossed the customs border of Armenia and Russia,” says Knobel.
According to the expert, the same can be said about importing goods
produced in Nagorno-Karabakh by the firms registered in Armenia in any
other country which gives Armenian businessmen preferential customs
conditions. “If Armenia has certain agreement on preferential
treatment of foreign economic relations in general or any trade
agreement, Karabakh definitely cannot be included in these agreements
. So the trade regime, which applies to Armenian products should not
be applied to the goods from Nagorno-Karabakh,” he adds.
With regard to the sanctions which may be imposed on such firms,
Russian law requires revision, Knobel stresses. “It all depends on
whether there are formal documents regarding restrictions on trade in
goods. The problem is that if there are no such documents, it is
difficult to legally punish anyone. There are resolutions of the UN
Security Council stating thst Nagorno-Karabakh is an occupied
territory of Azerbaijan, but it is quite possible that in Russia there
are no special documents relating to the ban on the export of goods
from there. Probably, back then the problem of exporting goods from
Karabakh was so small compared to other issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, that nobody thought about formalizing it,” says the expert.
However, this does not mean that imports from the occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenian companies into Russia can not be
officially banned in the future. “I stress that if Azerbaijan
initiates this question, it has all the chances on the international
level to adopt the documents on the ban on trading goods from
Karabakh,” concludes Alexander Knobel.
From: A. Papazian
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/politics/58059.html