Involving WTO in dispute between Russia, EU on African swine fever will delay solution of problem for years - Dankvert
MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor Director Sergei Dankvert believes the European Commission's request to involve the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Russia's actions with regard for the registration of the African swine fever virus on the territory of the European Union may delay the resumption of trade for years.
"Previously, I said that the problem can be resolved through technical negotiations with European specialists in a couple of months, but the involvement of the WTO in this may delay the process by years," Dankvert told Interfax, commenting on the reports by some foreign media stating that the European Commission said it has run out diplomatic methods of resolving the conflict and has decided to the turn to the WTO. The problem is that Russia stopped importing pork and live pigs from the EU after the African swine fever virus was found in Poland and Lithuania and bans the supply of ready meat products from Poland and Lithuania from April 7. Processing enterprises of other countries that use Polish and Lithuanian pork may also lose the right to supply ready products to Russia.
Dankvert said Rosselkhoznadzor suggested regionalization immediately after the virus was found in Lithuania and Poland. "We suggested cutting off the countries that do not border on Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine [where African swine fever virus was also found] and that could supply products at the initial stage and holding negotiations with the countries that border on then and regionalizing the supplies [determining the regions which can export products] at the second stage. For some reasons unknown to us, our colleagues have decided to take this dispute to the WTO," he said.
"We do not mind their going to the WTO. What we do mind in this situation is the fact that the technical negotiations aimed at finding a solution to this problem are transferred into the sphere of a lengthy debate in the WTO, which will no doubt reflect on the speed of the decision-making process," Dankvert said, adding that disputes are often considered by the WTO very slowly.
"The legacy that the outgoing administration of the European Commission will leave its successors in the veterinary sphere will be difficult," Dankvert said. "It will be difficult to explain to European farmers who could resume the supply of their products to Russia why they cannot trade because of someone's mistakes and someone's unwillingness to make appropriate changes to the veterinary certificate," he said.
Dankvert said Rosselkhoznadzor already has requests from the veterinary services of some European countries who suggest signing bilateral treaties on supplies. "However, no decision has yet been made on the issue of changes to the veterinary certificate. Instead, this issue is being taken to the WTO," Dankvert said.
