China backs merchants after Moscow market closure

BEIJING, July 17 - China on Friday urged Russia to protect the interests of its merchants after the closure of a huge Moscow market threw tens of thousands of traders out of work.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last month ordered the closure of the 300-hectare Cherkizovsky market, Eastern Europe's largest, which employed many Chinese and Vietnamese traders and was a highly profitable centre for trade in contraband clothing.

"Recently, Russia abruptly announced the closure of the Cherkizovsky market in Moscow," Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian said on the ministry's website (www.mofcom.gov.cn).

"That created huge losses for tens of thousands of Chinese merchants who had operated in the market for many years."

Yao urged Russia to avoid "extreme action" and said Chinese authorities had held several rounds of discussions with Russian authorities.

The June 29 closure of the Cherkizovsky market, only 8 km (5 miles) from the Kremlin, has caused chaos in Russia's clothing trade. Groups of jobless Chinese are now guarded by police in a park outside the market.

The market's problems began on June 1, when Putin called on his cabinet to stop the thriving trade in smuggled counterfeit goods.

Yao said in the statement: "The type of non-regular, cross-border trade known as 'grey channel customs clearance' has its own particular historical background, but over the long term, the many Chinese merchants in Russia have found that customs channels are not convenient.

"It takes some time to change the nature of economic activity," Yao said. "But Chinese merchants' long presence in Russia has made a positive contribution to Russia's and Moscow's prosperity and economic development."