Events

MINSK, 3 December (BelTA) – It is necessary to resolve the situation regarding supplies of Belarusian products to Russia within ten days. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko gave the relevant instruction at the government conference held on 3 December to discuss the measures taken to remove the prohibition on the import of Belarusian products to the Russian Federation and the transit of embargoed goods, BelTA learned from Vice Prime Minister Mikhail Rusyi.

The head of state raised the issue of product quality control inside Belarus, order at Belarusian enterprises, the observance of processing technologies and all the regulations starting with the border, transit, the prevention of re-export and the establishment of smooth deliveries of Belarusian products.

The President gave instructions to put more efforts into finding new target markets. According to Mikhail Rusyi, Belarus works with 50 countries, however, the volume of trade with them is small. “Yes, the Russian market is an attractive one but its capacity has a limit,” said the Vice Prime Minister. He also pointed out this year’s good output growth rate.

The Vice Prime Minister remarked that representatives of Russian agencies worked in Belarus on 1-2 December and received complete information about every enterprise. Mikhail Rusyi said that a meeting with Vice Prime Minister of Russia Arkady Dvorkovich and Rosselkhoznadzor head Sergei Dankvert will take place on 4 December to discuss supplies of Belarusian food. The Belarusian side is in favor of both countries using the same methods. “We have to know where a sample was taken and what methods were used. If there are any complaints, then all our enterprises have to be immediately investigated and it has been done,” said the Vice Prime Minister. The Russian side suggested promptly setting up a universal system to register all the detected violations and response measures within the framework of the common economic space.

Mikhail Rusyi said he was confident that Belarusian enterprises offer the technological safety levels that the Customs Union requires. He said that sanitary services had examined 6,600 samples and the quality of only six of them had been recognized as poor. In physical terms 8 tonnes of merchandise has been confiscated. In his words, a major campaign to audit retail outlets is in progress. Apart from that, 800 Belarusian state-owned and private companies supply their products to Russia using Russian certificates. Mikhail Rusyi remarked that the mechanism will stay in place till the end of 2015. “So the manufacturers play it safe,” he said.

The Vice Prime Minister underlined that there is no inexplicable re-export from Belarus. In his words, Belarus and Russia operate an ARGOS system that tracks the movement of all animal husbandry products across the borders. He also added that the Belarusian side is still behind its quota of food export to Russia. As an example he mentioned that Belarus has supplied only 40,000 tonnes of pork while the quota is 47,000 tonnes.

“I believe we will find a solution, will work out a system, monitoring practices will be put in place. If necessary, weekly surveys will be carried out,” stressed Mikhail Rusyi.