Foreign goods shipped from Idlib to other governorates, between consumption and sale

The entry of foreign goods coming from Turkey through Idlib province to the Syrian markets continues to provoke many mixed reactions.

There are those who welcome it and believe that foreign goods have contributed to the decrease in prices, while there are those who are upset and believe that these goods have caused huge losses to trade, and they threaten many factory owners with closing their facilities if the situation continues as it is, according to them.

Mohamed Abu Abdullah, of Hama countryside, says that the goods coming from the Idlib market have provided him with the purchase of many necessities that he was not able to buy in the previous period before the fall of the regime, due to their high prices, while he describes himself as one of those with limited income who live on his monthly salary only.

Abu Abdullah believes that foreign goods have freed many from the authority of the central market traders, who did not take into account the situation of the crushed class, and who constantly raise prices, exploiting the absence of food control during the time of the deposed regime.

In turn, Ahmed Abu Samih, a food distributor in Hama governorate, pointed out that after the liberation of Syria, the Idlib markets opened up, from which cheap foreign goods came, which forced them later to reduce prices in order to compete, but this caused them huge losses, according to him.

Abu Samih added that competing with foreign goods is almost impossible, as the difference in the material value of the same item may reach 40%, warning that if the arrival of foreign goods from Idlib is not controlled, food factories will stop, and their workers will become unemployed.

As for Hassan Al-Shaar (owner of an industrial electricity trading company), he pointed out that industrialists and traders during the past period were victims of the arbitrary measures of the deposed regime, including the increase in internal shipping fees, as an inevitable result of the high cost of fuel, and high taxes and customs duties, in addition to the exorbitant amounts that were paid openly to the security forces, as "tributes" that cannot be evaded, noting that all of this put the consumer and the trader together in an unenviable predicament.

Al-Shaar stated that this openness in cheap foreign goods coming from Idlib since the fall of the regime has caused a major stagnation in the movement of buying and selling for goods previously present in the markets, noting also the decision to reduce customs duties and unify them from all border crossings, which inevitably means that reducing prices has become a reality, and therefore they will be forced to sell at a loss, according to his description.

For his part, Mr. Maher, owner of a tire import company in Hama city, considered that in the previous period and during the days of the deposed regime, the consumer was the one paying the bill for corruption in the markets, but now after the entry of cheap goods from Idlib, the biggest victim is the company owners and importers, noting that they were forced to reduce prices by 15%, which is the percentage that was reduced by the Customs Administration in the new administration, but he indicated that the weak purchasing power of citizens is still the biggest challenge facing the process of revitalizing commercial activity in the markets, whether before or after the fall of the regime.