EU warns Russia's ban on vegetables against WTO principles
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A European Union diplomat on Friday warned Russia that its ban on imports of EU fresh vegetables contradicts principles of the World Trade Organization, the trade group that Russia hopes to soon join.
"Russia is currently at the final stage of talks on WTO accession. WTO has certain agreements with regard to sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Thus, Russian authorities are acting against them," Fernando Valenzuela, the EU envoy to Russia, told reporters.
"Of course, Russia has no legal obligation to comply with the WTO rules, but it wants to join the WTO even this year," he said. "So the logic is: Russia should follow the WTO rules and principles already now but not wait until the last moment when it joins WTO."
Valenzuela said the EU considered Russia's ban "unsubstantiated" as "there is no sufficient scientific basis to justify a ban that is across the board for all EU member states."
"For these reasons we demand that the ban should be urgently lifted," he said.
Russia, which has been seeking WTO membership for more than 15 years, is the largest economy remaining outside the global trade watchdog.
Russia on Thursday banned the import of all fresh vegetables from all EU member states because of an outbreak of the E.coli bacteria. However, Russia's ban was rebounded by the European Commission which had lodged a protest against Russia later in the day.
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