The car market in Rustavi, a city 25 km south-east of the capital Tbilisi, is the biggest of its kind in Georgia. People from around the country and from other former Soviet republics come here to buy cars. Recently, it has remained filled with cars, the majority imported from Japan. Sellers complain that sales have been falling. They believe that the state of the country’s economy is behind the slowdown, as well as restrictions on car exports from Georgia in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan

The first major blow to the market was an agreement between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to create joint economic zone, which came to force from January 2012. This dramatically increased tariffs for cars imported from third party countries ? including Georgia ? into members of the new Eurasian Customs Union. Export of cars to Kazakhstan, previously the top importer of cars from Georgia, abruptly stopped

The second blow came when Azerbaijan, Georgia’s second biggest importer of cars, established new regulations prohibiting imports of cars produced before 2005. Later, excise taxes for cars produced after 2005 were also increased, further hurting Rustavi’s car market