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<title>Tobacco Articles: country belarus</title>
<link>http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/belarus.rss</link>
<description>Latest top tobacco news headlines</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<title>Trade ministry calls for scrapping cigarette import quota </title>
<link>http://naviny.by/rubrics/inter/2007/02/23/ic_news_259_267271/</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/242673.html</guid>
<description>
The Belarusian Ministry of Trade has suggested abolishing an import quota on cigarettes on January 1, 2008.

The ministry has already drawn up a draft directive providing for the measure and submitted it to the Council of Ministers, the ministry's official told BelaPAN.

The measure is part of agreements between Belarus and Russia on removing barriers in mutual trade.</description>
<source url="http://naviny.by/">Belarus News </source>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Lukashenko demands order in the country&#8217;s tobacco market</title>
<link>http://itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10882708&amp;PageNum=0</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/233774.html</guid>
<description>President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered the Belarusian government to normalize the situation in the country&#8217;s tobacco market by January next year. 

&#8220;All the shortcomings in the functioning of the tobacco market have to be removed. The aim is to produce high-quality and competitive products,&#8221; Lukashenko said after a meeting on the problems of the Belarusian tobacco market on Thursday. 

Lukashenko also said it was inadmissible to lobby interests in this sphere. Tobacco products are a highly profitable business, which should be a source of budget revenues. 
</description>
<source url="http://lite.itar-tass.ru/">ITAR-TASS </source>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Oct 2006 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>RESEARCH AND PRACTICE / Prevalence of Smoking in 8 Countries of the Former Soviet Union: Results From the Living Conditions, Lifestyles and Health Study: December 2004, Vol 94, No. 12 | American Journal of Public Health 2177-2187</title>
<link>http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/94/12/2177</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/185343.html</guid>
<description>Conclusions. Smoking rates among men in these countries have been high for some time and remain among the highest in the world. Smoking rates among women have increased from previous years and appear to reflect transnational tobacco company activity. 

</description>
<source url="http://www.apha.org/">American Journal of Public Health</source>
<author>anna.gilmore@lshtm.ac.uk</author>
<dc:coverage>Armenia</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Russia</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Ukraine</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Moldova</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Kyrgyzstan</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Kazakhstan</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Georgia</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2004 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<title>'A tactical market' / Interview with Denis Gourinovich, corporate relations manager at BAT in Belarus.</title>
<link>http://www.tobaccojournal.com/show_artikel.php3?id=2971</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/117241.html</guid>
<description>In Russia BAT has three factories and it is one of the three most powerful companies in the industry with very strong brands, such as Kent, Vogue, Pall Mall, and Yava Gold. In Ukraine we have one factory, and in 2002 we became market volume leader. Our brand Priluki Osoblivy is currently the best-selling brand in Ukraine.

BAT has invested more than US$ 300 million in Uzbekistan and enjoys the dominant market share there. Comparing Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Uzbekistan on the basis of business conditions for international companies we can say that the most favourable market situation is in Russia. Market reforms are well advanced there and existing conditions stimulate the development of business activity, including tobacco companies. In Ukraine the state is attempting to control the market by means of tax policy and regulations which sometimes contradict previously issued laws. In the mid nineties the Ukrainian government increased excise rates, which provoked an increase in illegal imports of cigarettes.

This, in turn, led to multi-million dollar losses for the state budget as sales of local manufacturers fell sharply. In Belarus and Uzbekistan business environments are similar, as both economies are experiencing a significant degree of interference by state authorities.</description>
<source url="http://www.tobaccojournal.com">Tobacco Journal International</source>
<author>jeckert@vrm.de</author>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Feb 2003 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Russia Urges Belarus To Drop Some Trade Barriers -Tass</title>
<link>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/dowjones/20030205/bs_dowjones/200302050928000692</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/116416.html</guid>
<description>&quot;A joint project to form a single economic space within the framework of the Treaty for the Establishment of a Union State will contribute to further expansion of trade and economic ties between our countries,&quot; Russian Vice- Premier Viktor Khristenko wrote in a letter to Belarussian Prime Minister Gennady Novitsky, Tass reported.

A copy of Khristenko's letter to Novitsky was received by Itar-Tass on Wednesday, the agency reported.

A Russian government source elaborated that Belarus unilaterally imposed restrictions on several Russian export items, including beer and tobacco products, in contradiction of the letter and spirit of Belorussian-Russian bilateral agreements, the agency reported.</description>
<source url="http://www.tobacco.org/media.php?mode=display&amp;media_id=11830">Dow Jones via Yahoo</source>
<dc:coverage>Russia</dc:coverage>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Feb 2003 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Grodno tobacco factory ?Neman? to launch production of lights and super lights cigarettes in second quarter of current year</title>
<link>http://belta.press.net.by/eng/page.cgi?id=105415</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/114426.html</guid>
<description>In the second quarter of the current year the Grodno tobacco factory ?Neman? will launch the production of lights and super lights cigarettes of the popular brands ?Minsk?, ?GTF?, ?Premier? and ?Magnat?. This is going to be absolutely new products as the factory has installed new equipment after the reconstruction, deputy director of the enterprise Mikhail Iosko told reporters on January17.

According to Mikhail Iosko, the new technological equipment will let the enterprise annually produce 14,5 billon cigarettes. It is three times more than the joint venture ?Tabak-invest? produces now. </description>
<source url="http://belta.press.net.by/">Belarusian Telegraph Agency  </source>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jan 2003 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<title>President issues decree on state regulation of tobacco market</title>
<link>http://www.belarustoday.info/news/news.php?id=14049&amp;lang=eng</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/112330.html</guid>
<description>Alexander Lukashenko issued decree On state regulation of production, turnover, advertisement and consumption of tobacco, Interfax-West was told in the presidential press-service. The decree, in particular, states that tobacco goods are to be produced by legal bodies alone - commercial organizations and non-commercial ones, which are part of the Belarusian Union of consumers.</description>
<source url="http://www.belarustoday.info/">Belarus Today</source>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Dec 2002 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Belarus Bans Smoking at Medical Establishments</title>
<link>http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0104383.5xi&amp;level3=19912&amp;date=20010105</link>
<guid>http://tobacco.org/news/56482.html</guid>
<description>Belarus announced a ban on smoking at all medical establishments in the country Thursday, according to reports reaching here from Minsk.

The ban was imposed by orders from Public Health Minister Igor Zelenkevich and came into effect on the same day, a spokesman for the Belarussian Public Health Ministry was quoted as saying. . . 

A recent survey indicates that nearly 50 percent of the country 's population smoke. &quot;Belarus is now living through a veritable epidemic of tobacco smoking, which is very dangerous for people's lives,&quot; said Deputy Public Health Minister Valery Filonov.

Filonov noted that the drive against smoking in Belarus is especially urgent because the republic had suffered from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, and each cigarette for a man is &quot;another small Chernobyl.&quot;</description>
<source url="http://www.newsedge.com">NewsEdge</source>
<dc:coverage>Belarus</dc:coverage>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Jan 2001 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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