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Merchants to retrieve seized goods in Moscow

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-31 05:17

MOSCOW: Chinese merchants will be allowed to retrieve their goods in a closed Moscow market, the head of a Chinese coordination group said on Thursday.

A Chinese coordination group on Thursday discussed with Moscow' s consumer department the clearing up of Chinese merchants' stalls in the Cherkizovsky market as well as the transferring of their goods.

The Russian side agreed to take further steps to safeguard the market's order and to work with the Chinese side to crack down on the illegal activities, said Cai Guiru, head of the temporary Chinese coordination group and chairperson of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

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It is agreed that Chinese merchants will be allowed to clean up their stalls and ship out their merchandise during a specific period of time every day, Cai said.

The Russian side took "sincere and earnest" attitudes towards the handling of the market closure, in the hope that most of the Chinese merchants will be able to retrieve their goods safely, she said.

This meeting is helpful and the Russian side heard positive opinions from Chinese vendors, said Georgy Smoleyevcky, first deputy head of the Moscow Consumer Market and Services Department.

The Russian side will make conclusions accordingly and give instructions to relevant departments, he said, expressing the hope that complaints from Chinese traders will be less and less in future.

The official also dismissed the speculation that a Chinese shopping mall will be built in the place of the closed Cherkizovsky, Russia's biggest wholesale market.

The coordination group, formed under the auspices of the Chinese embassy in Russia in July, involves heads of China's provincial chambers of commerce.

Russian police abruptly shut down the nearly 300-hectare market in northeastern Moscow on June 29, after the disclosure of various illegal and irregular operations in the market by the Russian Federal Supervision Service for Consumer Rights Protection and People Welfare.

A Chinese senior delegation, led by Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, reached broad consensus with the Russian side on the closure issue.