Poland eliminating popular trade hub.

Poland will shut down the largest trade hub in Warsaw and replace it with a new sports stadium. This trade hub in Poland is Europe's largest bazaar/flea market, where you can reportedly buy literally everything-from pirated CDs to vodka and AK-47s from beyond the eastern border. Cash and under the table deals are king. Every day busloads of traders come to Poland and the Jarmark from Russia and Ukraine and other countries to the East. If you want that you can find it there. And you can find it in a good price. Known locally as the Russian market, and more widely known as Jarmark Europea, it provides employment for approximately 60,000 people. Changing the location of the Jarmark will create economic shock waves through Warsaw.

Thousands of small traders around Warsaw visit the Jarmark each day to buy goods that they take back to the streets and sell on this stands. In many cases deals are in cash. And these traders sell for cash. So all taxes are avoided.

And the people of Warsaw know that if they want to find something very cheap they go to the Jarmark. It is a very popular shopping point.

The Jarmark in the past has been untouchable.

Whenever Polish authorities have been asked questions about the illegal trade, the number of non registered businesses, and illegal activities that are considerd commonplace at the Jarmark, they have avoided direct answers and instead talked about the imporetance of the issue and with 60,000 people's employment at stake, they could not afford the political fallout that would result if they wereto shut down or imposed effective controls on what happened at the Jarmark.

The government now says that it will find new places for these traders. Government involvement in the placement of these traders implies some increased government supervision. Such supervision may eliminate the businesses of many of these people.

The announcement of the change has not received much attention in the press. That can be expected. The less one says about the Jarmark, the safer one is.

But as the time draws near and the incomes of some 60,000 people in Warsaw start being affected, the source of products for many small businesses and traders who buy and sell in the black and grey market are eliminated, or prices increased, there will be both political and economic fallout.

Small business and employment in Warsaw will soon change. And maybe some of the politicians who want to change the Jarmark. There is too much money and too many people involved for it to be a minor event.

Source:masterpage.com.pl