Brussels, 28/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has taken the issue of the Russian embargo on EU pork to the WTO's committee on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures - the first step before the launch of legal proceedings.
“We are ready to go to the WTO. I think we have a very strong case”, European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht told press on 27 March, speaking of the exasperation of the European industry which has been losing €4 million per day since Russia extended an embargo on pork to the whole EU at the end of January, following the discovery of an outbreak of African swine fever in Lithuania.
The EU raised the issue during a meeting of the WTO committee on SPS measures on 25-26 March, paving the way for a request for consultations with Russia - the first formal step of the WTO's dispute settlement procedure. Faced with a lack of progress in its negotiations with the Russian authorities, the Commission - which appeared rather reluctant at the idea of taking the case to the WTO - seems to have revised its position. Since the start of the case, the Commission has been asking that only exports from regions identified as affected by African swine fever be suspended, in line with the principle of regionalisation provided for in the WTO's SPS rules.
Russia states that it has reacted to the discovery of swine fever in Lithuania and Poland, “but this disease is endemic [in Russia] and not in the EU, and, if rare cases have been found in bordering areas, it is because this disease is in Russia”, said De Gucht on Thursday. Since January, four cases have been flagged up in the EU, but only involving boars, in the areas bordering Belarus. (EH)