Customs and tariffs policy must protect people's interests, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said today opening a meeting of the Government Commission on Protective Measures in Foreign Trade and Customs Tariff Policy. 

"The decisions the Commission takes affect above all the ordinary people and we should prepare proposals in a particularly responsible and balanced manner," he said.

Mr Zubkov said that "the agenda comprises a wide range of issues: business aviation, telecommunications, some consumer goods and other issues that are important both for goods providers and for the population."

"We should not forget about it," he stressed.

Mr Zubkov stressed that "the proposed measures should ensure an optimal balance between the domestic production of goods and the volume of imports, a balance of interests between producers and consumers of goods."

"We should protect the market against spikes of inflation," he went on.

Mr Zubkov noted that "customs and tariff policy measures are an instrument of market regulation the state is using to protect the domestic market, form a competitive economic environment and ensure fair pricing."

"We must use that instrument above all in view of the goals and tasks of innovative development of the national economy," he said.