Optimism about EU-Russia meat row 30 Mar 2007

Brussels recently sent results of a series of inspections in Poland. "We hope after this, the Russian ban will disappear soon," a Commission spokesman said on Friday.


Closing borders
Russia closed its borders for Polish meat about a year ago, because the quality of the meat would be insufficient.


This point of view worsened political relations between Poland and Russia, as it caused the Poles to be not amused.


This spring, the Polish prime minister vetoed a very important treaty between Russia and the European Union.


Frequently
Russia has been closing its borders for foreign meat rather frequently.


At the moment, Brazil is not able to export meat to Russia due to Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks in the country; German pork was not welcome last year due to Classical Swine Fever outbreaks among wild boars.


Last year, Russia also threatened to ban meat from the European Union as the Russians claimed contaminated pork would enter the EU through the accession of Bulgaria and Romania.


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