EU Upset That No One Wants Their Diseased Meat - Tries Suing Russia Because Why Not?
The debates in the EU about anti-Russian sanctions are getting louder and a bit strange. Here's an extreme example: The EU suddenly demanded huge monetary compensation for our refusal to buy European meat.
Pavel Zarubin with the details.
Store clerks:
"We won't tolerate their fines. We don't need any fines".
"Yeah, we don't need their meat either. We've got our own meat!"
The news that the EU wants to impose a huge fine on Russia shocked pork sellers and producers.
"We can do everything ourselves. We'll raise it and then sell it. Here, I'll cut you a slice".
Being cut off from the attractive Russian market, the EU decided to get back at Russia by lodging a complaint with the WTO. The occasion was the Russian ban of European pork due to an outbreak of African Swine Fever. It was imposed more than three years ago. In December, Russia lifted this sanitary ban, so if the investigation is objective, the result can be only one.
Yulia Melano, Rosselkhoznadzor: "We consider the claims of the EU to be unjustified. We're confident that we're in the right".
Anatoly Aksakov, State Duma: "The EU has no chance to win this case".
The thing is, the dispute started by the EU is obviously not economic. The sanitary ban has been lifted, yet European pork is still prohibited in Russia because it is the subject of a Russian counter-sanction embargo.
The EU believes that the sanitary ban was politically motivated. They want compensation for damages — 1.5 billion euros per year of the embargo.
Sergey Yushin, National Meat Association: "It's a political issue — a part of a large-scale trade war. The WTO doesn't comment on the issue. Russia didn't start this sanction war".
According to Moscow, if the EU case receives at least some support, it will ultimately devolve all principles of the WTO. How can there be free trade against a background of illegal sanctions that we also have to compensate for?
Now Russia fully provides itself with pork, although a few years ago, it had to be imported from abroad. Now the country produces so much meat that it has started exporting it. How can the EU tolerate that?
Anton Permyakov, Center for Breeding Livestock: "The industry is well-trained, it is holding firm, and it feels confident".
Here's some indirect confirmation that the EU-initiated proceedings are just another display of unfair trade: The EU stated that compensation doesn't necessarily have to be monetary, it is enough to impose new duties on Russian products in foreign markets. Many voices in the EU have been raised, claiming that the relations between Russia and Europe are in a deadlock.
"The anti-Russian sanctions are meaningless", reads the statement of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria. The French Minister of Finance directly admitted that his country is using all opportunities to cooperate with Russia even under the sanctions.
Every day, it becomes harder for the EU to continue a unified foreign policy towards Moscow.
Pavel Zarubin, Viktor Prikhodko Lyudmila Gaynudinova, and Ekaterina Galkina Vesti