Russian ban on import of Kazakhstan tomatoes and peppers recognized as a barrier?

The actions of the Russian authorities, which restricted the import of tomatoes and peppers from Kazakhstan, were recognized by the Eurasian Economic Commission as illegal.

On March 16, 2021, at the initiative of the Kazakh side, the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission considered the issue of the legitimacy of the Russian ban on the import of tomatoes and peppers from the Republic of Kazakhstan. Following the discussion of the Board members and representatives of the parties, the EEC Board decided that the ban established at the end of last year by the Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of the Russian Federation) is illegal and is recognized as a barrier.

According to the decision of the Board of the EEC of the Russian Federation, it is necessary to cancel the established bans within a month.

Recall that from December 16, 2020, the Rosselkhoznadzor imposed a ban on the import of tomatoes and peppers from the Pavlodar region, and from January 18, 2021 from the Aktobe and Almaty regions, citing the presence of the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus in Kazakh products.

«In accordance with the legal framework of the EAEI, phytosanitary control and appropriate measures are applied only to those viruses that are available in the general agreed List. However, the Rosselkhoznadzor, in violation of the existing agreements, carried out control measures and imposed a ban on the import of Kazakh products.

We conducted our own research, including in the Netherlands, which proved the absence of any viruses in Kazakh tomatoes and peppers.

On our initiative, this issue was repeatedly considered at the site of the EAEU bodies in January-February of this year. All our partners, with the exception of the Russian ones, supported us. According to the results of joint work with the Ministry of Agriculture, it was possible to remove restrictions from large suppliers.

At the same time, in general, the ban on the import of Kazakh products continued to apply.

I would like to note that since the ban was imposed, Kazakhstani enterprises have lost more than 200 million tenge. The EEC Board heard our arguments and recognized the actions of the Russian authorities as a barrier» - said the Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration.