Following the pattern of the previous couple of years, the Belarusian government has set quotas for cigarette import and manufacturing for the year 2006.

Import is permitted at the same scale with the current year (1.5 billion cigarettes), although experts argue that the quota is likely to be exhausted in the nearest weeks already and will thus have to be raised, just like a year ago. In 2005, the government eventually had to allow two billion cigarettes to be brought into the country, and the demand for foreign tobacco products that is estimated at around 4 to 4.5 billion sticks per year was made up by cigarettes produced under license contracts at local facilities. Restrictions on cigarette imports are part of the government’s programme of import substitution that has already forced BAT, JTI and PM to make some of their brands locally. (vt)