Market vendors threaten to demonstrate on 15th Dec

Market vendors are threatening to stage a demonstration in Minsk, the capital, on 15 December 2008 over planned changes to import policies. The new regulations, which eliminate the use of a fixed value-added tax on Russian imports and require additional documentation on goods, will go into affect on 1 January 2009. Approximately 40 percent of the 200,000 market vendors in the country participated in a one-day strike over the issue on 10 December.