Guessing games over reclaiming duties on imported drugs

The government authorized the Health and Finance Minister to negotiate with the medicine importers in order to solve the problem in a conciliatory way. "I don't know what in this case "conciliatory" could mean. The law does not cover cases of negotiating the amount of a fine. For us, the only way is to withdraw the charges against drug importers," said Robert Pachocki, deputy president of the Pharmacy Chamber of Commerce. After the new cabinet line up was revealed, only the Finance Minister will stay on, which makes it difficult to guess what the new government's policy concerning the issue will be. What is certain however, is that the European Commission has started a mediation proceedings to help to solve the problem. This will be the third time in its history that the EU has played the role of a mediator. (Puls Biznesu, p. 22) D.W.