Trade relations between Russia and EU worsens
In March, Russia introduced the ban on animal imports into the Custom Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia (CU) after Polish veterinary services removed 37 dead pigs from vehicles without notifying the Veterinary Service of Belarus or the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor). The Russian authorities considered this a gross violation of the guarantees that the EU had given Moscow in terms of monitoring the quality of exported livestock products and instituted a ban.
However, relations worsened after Danish pig producers violated the Russian prohibition. Recently, the State Veterinary Service of Belarus stopped three trucks containing 678 breeding pigs that were being shipped from Denmark to the Tambov region of Russia, at the international checkpoint Kozlovichi, on the border of the CU.
In the official report, the deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor Eugene Nepoklonov, said: “The veterinary services of the European Union once again failed to provide effective safeguards considering the health of animals exported to Russia. In this case we concerns of the lack of official reaction to our demands from the European Commission’s Directorate-General, as well as from the national veterinary services of EU member states.”
“All this once again indicates a lack of proper control over compliance with requirements of the Customs Union and Russia by the veterinary authorities of European countries, as well as the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection for the supply of live animals from the EU member states to Russia.
“Rosselkhoznadzor requested the Commission to conduct an investigation and revealed violations, so it could provide Rosselkhoznadzor with information about the course and outcome of the investigations as soon as possible. In case of failure of such measure Rosselkhoznadzor will be forced to take the necessary protective measures unilaterally."
In response, the Veterinary Services in Denmark has announced a complete ban on exports of breeding pigs in the country of the Customs Union.
A representative of the Danish Veterinary Services said: “To conduct investigation, as well as to take necessary measures to prevent similar violations in future and to inform about its results Rosselkhoznadzor it will totally take 15 days. At this time we decided to stop all shipments of breeding pigs from Denmark in the member countries of the Customs Union.”
The situation was made more tense when earlier this week (21 May) when a Latvian enterprise delivered a 60 ton shipment of fish meal for animal feed to Russia, which was found to contain dioxins. Representatives of the Veterinary Services called this a “flagrant incompetence” by their European counterparts and, according to Russian experts, the European export of animal products to Russia in the next few weeks will be severely limited.
