Trade and transit issues over banned food products entering Russia from neighbour Belarus are expected to be resolved within days, state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union State Grigory Rapota said on Monday.
Talks are planned within the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan over Russia’s ban on foodstuffs from Belarus marked as in transit to third countries entering Russia without official clearance.
This was introduced on November 30 in a bid to stop prohibited products from European suppliers being unloaded in Russia and finding their way onto the domestic market. Controls are in force in retaliation for Western sanctions against Russia over events in Ukraine.
Russian food safety officials have also banned meat and dairy supplies from nine Belarusian enterprises due to violations of transportation regulations, microbiological concerns and presence of the African swine fever genome found in Belarusian products.
“There is a legal framework for such questions in the customs union,” Union State secretary Rapota said. “The Eurasian Economic Commission has clearly set out ways to solve this issue at a meeting permitting us to solve the issue in a course of a few days.”