Russia blamed Belarus of breaking agreements on milk

• 2.07.2009, 13:21

The Russian chief sanitary officer said the Belarusian authorities wreck agreements on dairy products supplies from Belarus to Russia that can lead to another suspension of Belarusian milk imports.

According to Gennady Onishchenko, Russia allowed more than 400 types of Belarusian dairy products to its market, but since June 17 Belarusian producers have given “the absurdly small “number of samples for expertise – about 30. “We are inclined to regard this situation as Belarus’s planned actions to break up the arrangements reached,” the head of the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights added.

We remind that the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights imposed a ban on imports of 500 Belarusian dairy products in early June this year. The ban was explained by necessity to re-register documents for imports of goods caused by new technical regulations on milk adopted in Russia in late 2008. The conflict was called a “milk war” by the media.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin explained later that the “milk war” launched because Minsk exceeded quotes of milk exports to Russia by 40 per cent. Besides, the ban on Belarusian product imports was connected with a conflict around allocating a $2 billion loan by Russia, after the Russian side had suspended transferring the last $500 million tranche.