Dankvert Accused Belarusian Officials in Sabotage

Head of Rosselkhoznadzor (the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance) found lobbyists from Belarus in the Eurasian Economic Commission (the EEC).

The EEC on issues of agricultural and industrial complex and technical regulation lobbies interests of Belarus and ignores Russian proposals. The head of the Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert brought such charges, Russian Izvestia writes.

Dankvert says that proposals of the Rosselkhoznadzor about technical regulation face idleness of responsible officials of the EEC. He puts milk and dairy products supplies as an example. According to the regulation, the powdered milk is forbidden to use as drinking milk. It is hard to detect the presence of powdered milk with the method adopted by the EEC. But inspections of large Belarusian milk processors conducted by the Rosselkhoznadzor proved the presence of the powdered milk in almost all samples, in some cases its share is about 50%.

According to Dankvert, the European Union took meetings of relevant representatives every two weeks in order not to let prohibited products to any country. Their decisions let them stop illegal supplies. "But our Eurasian Commission does not consider issues every two weeks or even every six months. And it is clear that this cannot be achieved if key positions that define the technical regulation, agriculture are occupied by our Belarusian colleagues," the head of the Rosselkhoznadzor resents.

The EEC told journalists that recent meetings on amendments to the regulation on food safety had been held in June, 2016. An agreed position was not reached. The next meeting on the issue is not specified.

By the way, Director General of Petrova Five Consulting Company Marina Petrova notes that 78% of imported cheese originates from Belarus and the share of powdered milk there is 96%. About 90% of exports of Belarusian dairy products go to Russia.