Belarus, Kazakhstan join Russian ban against New Zealand's Fonterra
MOSCOW. Aug 12 (Interfax) - The veterinary services of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have made a coordinated decision to ban imports of products from the dairy producers of New Zealand's Fonterra that were included in the list of exporters to Russia under guarantees from New Zealand's veterinary service.
"The heads of the three countries' held consultations in the course of which a coordinated decision was made to impose restrictions on imports of dairy products to the Customs Union from those enterprises of New Zealand's Fonterra that were included in the list of suppliers under guarantees from this country's veterinary service," the head of international cooperation in the veterinary department of Russia's Federal Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Oversight Service, Artyom Daushev told Interfax.
The documents needed to impose these restrictions are now being prepared, he said.
This essentially means a ban on imports of products from Fonterra suppliers included in the list, since it was compiled under guarantees from New Zealand's veterinary service. The list includes 71 Fonterra enterprises.
Daushev said the faltering explanations of New Zealand's veterinary service concerning what happened, as well as other shortcomings indicate that the process of including Fonterra enterprises in the list of suppliers to Russia might have been flawed.
"We believe these guarantees are insufficiently substantiated so we are asking our New Zealand colleagues for detailed information about when the enterprises exporting to Russia were inspected, how the standards and requirements of the Customs Union were taken into account, how compliance with these standards was monitored and so on," Daushev said.
The issue of lifting the restrictions can be discussed only after an analysis of received documents and inspections of the New Zealand enterprises, he added.
