Russia has come in for strong criticism from the European Union for its recent move to impose tough new rules on meat imports.
The EU called Russia's decision of last month to set quotas on its imports of beef, pork and poultry ‘regrettable’ and said that it flew against the spirit of a bilateral partnership agreement.
The Russian government approved three resolutions covering the nine month period starting April 1 2003 and setting quotas for the import of poultry meat, beef and pork. The resolutions set a quota of 315,000 tons for beef imports and 337,500 tons for pork. Licenses for 90% of beef and pork imports will be awarded to traditional shippers in proportion to their share of imports in 2000-2002.
In that Russia is the EU's largest single export market for beef and poultry and a major outlet for EU pork, the measures were likely to place traditional EU exports at risk, the EU said in a statement. Analysts also say Europe's livestock market will suffer as the measures may cause a glut, with little hope of producers finding new outlets for their production.
Many European diplomats view Moscow's move as retaliation for the EU's new tariff quotas on grain imports. These came into force on January 1 as a mechanism to stem large imports of cheap grain from Russia and Ukraine.
