EU upset at Russian ban on 70 European meat exporters
(BRUSSELS) - Russia, which recently lifted a ban on Polish meat, is now barring chicken and pork imports from 70 European companies, EU officials said Tuesday, ahead of an EU-Russia summit.
The problems emerged in April, according to European Commission officials, when Moscow began refusing certain imports because they contained traces of antibiotics.
Now 70 companies, from seven EU nations -- Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain -- have been placed on the Russia embargo list, representing restrictions on produce worth "certainly more" than 100 million euros (156 million dollars) one official explained.
"Of course Russia has the right to its norm and to not want traces of antibiotics," another official said.
"But there must be clear rules which are not applied in an arbitrary manner," he added.
The worst-hit country is Denmark, which has seen its pork exports to Russia halved to the ban hitting its biggest exporters.
The commission suspects Russia is seeking to boost its national producers.
"There is a suspicion," one of the officials said, as the measures appeared "shortly after Russia officials called for higher levels of self-sufficiency in the farm sector."
"And all of a sudden, there are stricter import controls."
Moscow's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said Russia was obliged to take the action due to "concerns linked to public health," adding that the matter could be "easily solved by stopping the use of antibiotics."
"It is the habit of the European Union to give antibiotics to chickens and pigs as a preventative measure, but that can pose problems for human health," as the antibiotics in question are still used in human medicine in Russia, he explained.
An EU official said the issue would be brought up at the EU-Russia summit in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia on Friday, "even if no one wants to give it too much importance."
"We have already had a problem with Polish meat which affected the (diplomatic) atmosphere for a long time, we don't want to dramatise this," he added.
The European Union and Russia will give the formal go-ahead for talks on a new strategic partnership accord at the summit, the first in which Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will take part.
Poland held up the start of the talks for 16 months due to the Russian embargo on its meat.
Moscow formally lifted the embargo in January after Warsaw made a peace offering by dropping objections to Moscow beginning talks on membership of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which groups industrialised nations.
Fresh EU-Russia negotiations are deemed key to improving ties which soured under former president Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister, as well as ensuring a reliable energy supply from Russia and reviewing human rights.
