BRUSSELS, May 5 — The European Commission said today it had sent a letter to Russia contesting Moscow’s ban on imports of pork products from some European Union countries, further straining relations between the trading partners.
“We are contesting the ban and are awaiting the response from Moscow,” a spokeswoman for the EU executive told reporters.
Russia earlier extended its ban on imports of live pigs and raw pork to include the United Kingdom because of fears about the spread of H1N1 virus — also known as swine flu — which has affected at least 1,124 people worldwide.
Moscow said the ban was a formality, as the United Kingdom currently was not exporting pork to Russia because of another ban imposed due to foot-and-mouth disease.
The Commission, which oversees trade and health policy for the 27-nation EU, said a ban had also been imposed by Russia on pork imports from Spain.
“The bans are unjustified as there is no proof that the virus could be transmitted by meat,” the Commission spokeswoman said.
But the spokeswoman acknowledged that it would “be difficult” to impose any retaliatory sanctions against Russia since Moscow is not yet a member of the World Trade Organisation.
Previous spats over food safety, notably involving Polish meat, and the imposition of additional tariffs by Moscow on EU products such as timber and cars have severely hampered Russia’s aspirations to join the global trade body.
“This is typical behaviour by Moscow to use food safety as a protectionist measure,” an EU diplomat familiar with Russia’s WTO negotiations told Reuters.
But Moscow insists that the H1N1 virus, which mixes swine, avian and human strains, is a new one and additional studies are necessary to prove that it cannot be transmitted through raw pork.
Major international organisations issued three days ago a joint statement stressing the safety of pork products.
Russia has also curbed imports of pigs and pork from parts of Canada and the United States, and banned all meat imports from Mexico, Central American and Caribbean countries and the US states of California, New York, South Carolina and Texas. — Reuters
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