BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/06/2009

Milk Shipments Allowed to Resume

By Maria Antonova / The Moscow TimesThe Federal Consumer Protection Service said Wednesday evening that it would allow Belarus to resume sending its milk and dairy products across the border to Russia following another round of talks with a new delegation of officials from Minsk.

A reconstituted Belarussian delegation arrived in Moscow to continue negotiations that were broken off Tuesday when Gennady Onishchenko, the service's head, said he doubted whether the deputy agriculture minister sent to negotiate with him was competent to be holding the talks.

"A protocol has been signed that satisfies the Belarussian and Russian sides," Onishchenko told reporters. He said the sides agreed to work toward "the realization of Russian technical regulations on milk" and that milk imports could resume Thursday morning.

The conflict began earlier this month when the Federal Consumer Protection Service banned almost all Belarussian dairy products, citing their noncompliance with technical regulations passed in December. The rules require that producers indicate on the packaging any dehydrated milk content.

Belarussian dairy exports to Russia have been estimated to be worth as much as $1 billion per year, and the ban came shortly after Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko traded barbs over the health of the Belarussian economy. Onishchenko said Wednesday that Belarussian producers would move to fulfill the packaging requirements "in the near future."

The apparent resolution comes as Belarussian customs officials said they were stepping up inspections for counterfeit and smuggled goods along the border with Russia.

"The Russian side has been controlling the flow of goods on the Belarussian-Russian border since 2000, so our authorities decided to adhere to the same policies, perhaps with some delay and after learning some lessons," said Vladimir Pekhterev, a spokesman for the Belarussian Customs Committee.

Although Russia and Belarus formed a customs union in 1995 that bans any duties on goods flowing between the countries, a Russian government decree in 2000 reintroduced the control points to process goods from third countries en route to Russia.

Alexander Proshin, a spokesman for Russia's Federal Customs Service, said inspections on the Russian side were "minimal."

"We are obligated to check all trucks to see whether the goods were produced in Belarus or third countries," he said.

The Customs Committee of Belarus introduced the new border control points following an order from Lukashenko. Belarussian Security Council head Yury Zhadobin said the steps repeated "the actions used by the Russian side for many years."

Pekhterev confirmed that five customs points were established Wednesday. On the Russian side, there are 17 control points, so the number on the Belarussian side is likely to grow, he said.

The delegation that arrived Wednesday was led by Agriculture Minister Semyon Shapiro and Health Minister Vasily Zharko and held talks at the Agriculture Ministry before meeting with Onishchenko.

The original delegation, which was dispatched from Minsk late Monday, left Moscow in exasperation the following day. "Nobody answered our phone calls" at the consumer protection service on Tuesday afternoon, said Mikhail Saveliev, a deputy agricultural minister and the delegation's head, according to a statement on the Belarussian Embassy's web site.

Source:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/378871.htm

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