MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax) - Russia will ban imports of finished meat products that contain pork from Poland and Lithuania starting on April 7.
"Starting April 7, we will join the measures introduced by Belarus as a Customs Union member with regard to imports of ready products containing pork from Poland and Lithuania," Sergei Dankvert, the head of the Russian agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, told Interfax.
Belarus banned imports of such products from Poland and Lithuania immediately after African swine fever (ASF) was discovered there, he said.
This decision was made following consultations that Rosselkhoznadzor conducted with European Commission officials on the sidelines of a conference of the World Trade Organization Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in Geneva at the end of March, Dankvert said. "We have once again seen that our European counterparts have assumed an unconstructive position on regionalization in the EU countries because of African swine fever and the absence of efficient measures to control the flow of raw [meat] from the affected area and the endangered area in Poland and Lithuania," he said.
Rosselkhoznadzor considers its European partners' position dangerous, he said.
The ban on imports of live pigs, pork, and other raw pork products to Russia from the EU has been in effect since the end of January.
Additionally, the European Commission has decided to turn to the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning Russia's ban on pork from EU countries.
Dankvert said this could prolong resolving issues connected with renewing trade for years, but technical talks with European specialists could allow this to happen within around two months.