The Swiss government, where the world traders of raw materials are based, said yesterday that it is not going to introduce strict regulation of the field, but urged the trading companies to be more transparent.
In May 2012 under the international pressure the Swiss government stated investigation of the field, as the trading companies were accused of manipulation of the prices. The turnover of the raw material traders with the Swiss registration constitutes about 3.5% of the country’s GDP.
The government adopted 17 recommendations, which are aimed at preserving attractiveness of Switzerland as the world centre of raw material trade and avoiding undermining the country’s reputation.
The headquarters of Glencore, Vitol, Trafigura, Xtrara and SOCAR Trading companies are located in Switzerland. “We must use all possibilities to achieve transparency of financial and raw materials flows,” reads the statement posted on the web site of the Swiss Ministry of Economy.
The authors of the International Organization of Securities, which was made to order of the “Group 20” countries in 2012, claimed that price formation at the raw material market is subject to “manipulations or distortions.” Meanwhile, activities of the traders of raw materials did not become the subject of discussion of the “Group 20” during Russia’s chairmanship. The government has recommended studying the possibility of application of the rules that currently in force in EU and USA in Switzerland.
SOCAR Trading started operating in Switzerland since the beginning of 2008. Its headquarters is based in Geneva. The company is registered as daughter of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), but there is no information about the company in SOCAR’s audited reports. There is no information about SOCAR Trading on the web site of SOCAR. SOCAR Trading General Director Valerii Golovushkin said in his interview to Reuters in 2012 that in 2011 the company’s turnover exceeded $30 billion. However, till now SOCAR did not mention the profit made from SOCAR Trading activities.—0--
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