Russian boycott on pork off the job

The judgment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which stated that Russia's import ban on European pork does not comply with international rules, has been accepted by Russia. However, the country is still banning European pork for the time being.

Russia closed its borders to European pork in January 2014. This is due to the outbreak of African swine fever in the Baltic States. Brussels considered this measure too extensive, as no African swine fever had been found in other European countries. According to the European Commission (EC), there are political motivations behind the sanitary import ban.

Legal tug-of-war
That is why the EC took the incident to the WTO. Who judged in 2016 all that the import ban was illegal. Russia then objected by appealing. Also in second instance (February 2017) the WTO stuck to its position. In June, Russia announced that it respected the WTO ruling. Both Russia and Europe then agreed that a period of several months would be needed to follow up the decision.

At the beginning of December, this period expired and Russia has definitively announced that it accepts the ruling. However, Russia has said it is closely monitoring the situation with regard to African swine fever in Europe. The Russian food watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor) also expects cooperation from Europe to fight African swine fever together by exchanging data.

Second boycott
Now that the boycott has been lifted for European countries where African swine fever has not been detected, this does not mean that those countries can start exporting pork to Russia again. In August 2014, Russia introduced an import ban for vegetables, fruit, dairy, fish and (pork) meat from Europe. This in response to European sanctions against Russia, because of the annexation of Crimea. At the time, the trade ban was in effect for one year.

In the meantime, the boycott still applies and Russia recently announced that it has been extended until the end of 2018. Since the autumn of 2014, Russia has in theory applied 2 boycotts for European pork. 

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness. He also focuses on dairy, pig and meat markets. He also follows (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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