Protectionism in Russia

Written by Sergey Talpa


The new law "Special Protective, Antidumping and Import Compensatory Measures" differs fromrepparttar old one byrepparttar 103196 fact that it fully complies withrepparttar 103197 WTO (World Trade Organization) standards. It is forrepparttar 103198 first time inrepparttar 103199 Russian practice that a law describes in detail what is necessary to do in order to protectrepparttar 103200 Russian market and how to do it. As its authors promised,repparttar 103201 Law has turned out to be extremely concrete: it is conceived so thatrepparttar 103202 officials as well asrepparttar 103203 participants of trade agreements will be able to find straight answers to their questions, and they should not search for any special "explanations" and "commentaries".

The law provides a listing of basic concepts. Not everyone in Russia, even among lawyers, will be able to tell straight off what "dumping leverage" is, and what "dumping import" is. Forrepparttar 103204 majority of people it becomes a revelation, that "dumping" is notrepparttar 103205 sale of foreign goods in Russia at lower prices than similar local products cost (that's what for some reason most people think) butrepparttar 103206 sale of a product cheaper, than local production costs. A number of base concepts comprise such, as "the material loss of an industry" (what to understand in general underrepparttar 103207 term "damage") and "serious damage " (how to calculate it), and in general a lot of other things, which are clear "in general", but very artful when officials start to build a state policy, based onrepparttar 103208 intuitive understanding of such terms.

For example,repparttar 103209 Law providesrepparttar 103210 description ofrepparttar 103211 investigation concept, which should precederepparttar 103212 introduction of all protective measures against "bad" foreign goods.

The Law states, thatrepparttar 103213 body responsible for investigation, is appointed byrepparttar 103214 decision ofrepparttar 103215 Government ofrepparttar 103216 Russian Federation, and defines concrete timeframe, both forrepparttar 103217 investigation, and for implementation of its results (the measures, taken according to investigation results should be approved byrepparttar 103218 Government not later than 14 days after they are exposed). In case of a highly critical situation such measures need to be introduced extremely rapidly, asrepparttar 103219 Government can practically instantly introduce a special tax (protective import tax) onrepparttar 103220 goods that cause damage torepparttar 103221 economy. Should it be found out later, that this tax is excessively heavy;repparttar 103222 foreign trade participants will haverepparttar 103223 right to be reimbursed forrepparttar 103224 actual incurred losses. Such import tax cannot be effective for more than 200 days.

The Law describes in detail how to establishrepparttar 103225 degree of damage torepparttar 103226 Russian economy from "bad" import. Special protective measures have to be implemented in order to protectrepparttar 103227 economy,repparttar 103228 Law clearly defines, what those are and in what case they should be used, for how long and what isrepparttar 103229 order of their review. The main idea behind this is that such protective measures should be lifted, as soon as they fulfill their purpose. It is important not to go too far with those measures, otherwiserepparttar 103230 market protection may cause more harm than good, creating withrepparttar 103231 domestic manufacturer a sensation of absence of competition, thatrepparttar 103232 buyers will berepparttar 103233 first ones to feel.

eBAy: Don’t Believe All the Hype

Written by Floyd Snyder


Three billion dollars (that’s billion with a "B") in revenues, 135 million users, millionaires all overrepparttar place at eBay! Yeah, eBaby!!!, to steal a line form another great author. (See "EBay: No Way…Yes Way (Ten Seller Themes) by Barbara Snyder M.A.” at http://www.sbmag.org/howtosellonebay.html)

Yeah! Wow! … Make a million! Open a store on eBay and get rich! Man this is easy!!! –NOT!!!

It’s way to easy to get caught up in allrepparttar 103195 hype out there about eBay and to start thinking all you have to do is set up an eBay store and you are on your way torepparttar 103196 life style to which you would like to become accustomed. Don’t believe it.

Before you start primping for your own segment of "Life-styles ofrepparttar 103197 Rich and Famous," there are a few things you should learn about eBay and small business start-ups in general.

The rate of survival of a traditional small business reads something like half of all new business start-ups fail inrepparttar 103198 first year and half ofrepparttar 103199 survivors do not surviverepparttar 103200 second year, and eBay is probably no different. In fact, it’s not easy at all anymore (if it ever was) to carve out a fortune on what has been dubbed "the world’s largest garage sale".

"But Floyd, take a look at all that money", you say. Sure eBay is doing just fine, but of that three billion dollars, how much of it is actually spent on items in "your" category or product line "you" have for sale?

Everyone has to decide exactly what business he or she wants to be in. Then they have to decide if they are going to be a niche player or try to carve out significant market share. Either way you decide to go, you may find out thatrepparttar 103201 pool you are swimming in is not as deep as it may first appear. Unless you are selling automobiles or real estate, not all or even a large percentage of that three billion dollars is spent in your merchandise category. Make sure you checkrepparttar 103202 water before you dive in head first.

When you do decide to jump in, make sure you are ready both financially and mentally to go through a learning curve of some months. Back inrepparttar 103203 earlier days this may not have beenrepparttar 103204 case, but today eBay has become extremely competitive and significantly more expensive for sellers. And don’t expect a lot of help from eBay directly. They are notrepparttar 103205 greatest company inrepparttar 103206 world at customer support. They have a lot of information available, but they also have a tendency to answer help questions with loads of boiler plate "fixes" that usually serve more to confuse then to actually help.

Speaking of fees, this is how eBay lives. They literally nickel and dime you to death (actually its more like quarter and dollar)… thirty cents forrepparttar 103207 cheapest insertion free, thirty-five cents for a gallery picture, a buck for "bolding" and on and on. And then there’srepparttar 103208 fair value selling commission andrepparttar 103209 PayPal fees (PayPal is a must have!). All these small fees add up fast. Don’t forget, you payrepparttar 103210 listing and insertion fees whether your item sells or not. You will quickly learn that your selling percentage becomes crucial and why it is so important you learn how to make very efficient listings atrepparttar 103211 lowest cost possible as fast as possible. If you fail to learn this, before for you know it, eBay is taking half or more of your total sales just in fees, not counting your cost of product and shipping.

eBay has been calledrepparttar 103212 "world’s largest garage sale" for good reason. You know what people are looking for at garage sales, cheap prices. Inrepparttar 103213 beginning, if you wererepparttar 103214 only one on eBay selling a specific product, you could demand and get higher prices. Today it’s a bit different. The competition is brutal. You are competing against people and business of all sizes, and there is always someone selling your product at very, very low prices, or worse yet, using it as a loss leader. Some of these people are huge jobbers and orrepparttar 103215 manufactures themselves, hard to compete against. Some sellers are part time or hobbyist and don’t need or care if they make much money (and they probably don’t). Unless you have a very unique product or are in a position where you can bring a new, hot product to eBay first, you must be prepared for extremely aggressive pricing competition in a market whererepparttar 103216 average buyer is looking for cheap beer prices on high quality champagne.

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