EU’s agricultural experts discuss fallout from Russian food imports ban

BRUSSELS, August 14 (Itar-Tass) - Senior agricultural experts representing European Union’s 28 member states gathered for a session in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the possible impact from the Russian ban on EU’s food imports announced last week in response to Western sanctions over Moscow’s stance on the developments in neighboring Ukraine. Roger Waite, a spokesman for the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos, said participants in the session would focus on the potential damage caused by Russia’s one-year ban on EU food imports and draw a map for possible counteractions. In response to Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree a week ago to ban for one year the imports of agricultural, raw and food products from the countries, which imposed sanctions against Russia. Waite also said that following the session a decision to call a meeting of the agriculture ministers from the EU member states would be made. The meeting of the ministers would discuss the risk of agricultural oversupplies on the EU market and compensations for losses to European agricultural producers in view of Russia’s food embargo. According to various estimations of European experts, Russia’s food sanctions block EU’s exports worth a total of over seven billion euros ($9.4 billion). Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced last Thursday that the Russian government imposed a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway. The list of the banned products includes cattle meat (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), pork (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), poultry meat and all poultry edible by-products, salted meat, pickled meat, dried meat, smoked meat, fish and shell fish, clams and other water invertebrates, milk and dairy products, vegetables, edible roots and tuber crops, fruits and nuts, sausage and analogous meat products, meat by-products or blood, as well as products made of them, ready-to-eat products including cheeses and cottage-cheese based on vegetable fats. The United States and the European Union, as well as Japan introduced a range of sanctions against Russia after Crimea’s merger with the country and over Moscow’s alleged involvement in armed standoff in Ukraine’s southeast. Moscow repeatedly rejected the threats of broader sanctions saying the language of penalties is counterproductive and will strike back at Western countries. Related news on itar-tass.com