Polish Meat
Banned In Russia
Poland Balks on Ban of Polish Meat
Warsaw, Poland - 27 November, 2007 Russia sees little hope in having the ban on Polish meat lifted as Poland fails to answer requests to inspect companies affected by the ban.
The ban on Polish meat was put in place not because Russia questioned the quality of Polish meat. It was put in place because Poland was a transhipping point for meat from third countries. Polish Meat Ban Self-inflicted
Meat imported to Poland would be reshipped to Russia with valid Polish veterinary certificates.
Poland accused Russia of making the meat ban a political issue while Poland itself used the ban as a pretext to veto talks on a new cooperation pact between the European Union and Russia.
The EU supported Poland by taking the position that Polish meat was good.
Neither Poland nor the EU publicly addressed the issue of how Polish Veterinary Certificates were able to be issued for substandard third country meat. See Why Can't Poland Cure The Russian Meat Ban?
Apparently trying to defuse the crisis, according to Alexei Alexeyenko of The Russian Veterinary Control Agency Rosselkoznadzor, "In April we asked that Poland allow us inspect the companies affected by the restrictions. But so far we have not received an answer. Our inspectors cannot reach them."
It is not that the Russians are not actively holding inspections in Poland. They have been inspecting Polish meat plants since 13 November, 2007. But according to Alexeyenko they are not inspection the enterprises that are affected by the meat embargo. No quick fix in Polish meat dispute: Russian official
The issuance of a veterinary certificate is an administrative matter carried out by someone in an identifiable paper trail. That person should be able to shed light on the process to which Russia is objecting.
But Poland has put the issue of the quality of its meat in play and not the quality of its controls.
It appears that Russia wants to follow that paper trails and wants to start by inspecting what they call the enterprises affected by the meat ban.
Poland's lack of responsiveness raises a simple question. Why has Poland not responded?
But then the Polish Government Anti-Corruption Bureau may be more appropriate to the case than the Russian Veterinary Inspectors. So the lack of responsiveness may have some good basis in fact.
But with a new Government, there may be a change. The Tusk Government has a stated goal of improving relations with Russia. As an early step in that process, Minister of Agriculture Marek Sawicki said on Monday that Poland wants to engage Russia in talks concerning the meat ban, with the European Commission participating, in December. He said talk preparations were being made.
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