The EU health Commissioner lashes out on Russia saying Poland has done enough to match Russian demand pertaining to the quality of its meat exports, but Russia is till unmoved on removing its ban so far. Russia has imposed ban on food articles imported from many of its neighboring countries on the ground that the food products were contaminated with pesticides or heavy metal.
Obviously these bans have had a substantial impact on the producers such as 60 percent of Latvian fish exports were meant for Russia, which were halted by imposing a ban on it. And a similar proportion of milk products of Ukraine were exported to Russian market that met the same fate as that of Latvia.
The Russian strategy of banning edibles has devastated wine trade of Georgia and Moldova. The intensity of the damage inflicted on this industry can be imagined with the fact that it constituted 10 percent of total wine sold in Russia, especially at cheaper and of the market. However, Moldovan and Russian authorities have agreed on terms to lift sanction from Moldovan wine after a series of intensive negotiation. But the ban on Georgian items will remain in place.
The EU has repeatedly criticized this action of Russia and vehemently condemned particularly its action against Poland. The EU has also asked the Russian authorities to explain the reasons for its action. The EU has defended Poland saying that the country has taken significant measures to improve animal husbandry and in some cases its standards are higher than Russia.
Russia, on the other side, argues that the bans were imposed on genuine health concern while rejecting the notion of economic sanctions. Moreover, Russian actions are often criticized for imposing bans on those countries with which Kremlin does not enjoy good political equation.
