MINSK - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has accused Russia of breaking the Customs Union's regulations by banning food shipments from Belarus to the Russian market.
“Russia has behaved improperly by banning a lot of enterprises from shipping food products to Russian territory. Russia has resorted to breaking all of our agreements that we have achieved in the Customs Union,” Lukashenko said in listening to a report from government members on Dec. 3.
The report includes information on measures taken by the government to lift the ban on imports of Belarusian products to Russia and the transit of Western-made food products whose imports Russia has banned.
Lukashenko said he had had a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day before Moscow imposed the embargo on food products from the West. “The conversation was long, but nevertheless I said right away that it is Russia’s right to decide what to import and what not to import, although our agreements within the Customs Union stipulate that you have to warn [each other] about such sanctions beforehand and, moreover, coordinate such steps,” Lukashenko said, adding that neither Belarus nor Kazakhstan had argued.
“But I warned the Russian president: surely, we, as the Customs Union’s outer border, will honor our obligations to prevent the sanction goods from entering Russian territory. But I also warned that Belarusian enterprises that have concluded contracts and will conclude contracts with Western partners on shipping goods to Belarusian territory will continue to fulfill these agreements,” Lukashenko said.
“That is, we aren’t joining in the sanctions – which Russia has not demanded – and continue to work as usual,” he said, noting that Russia agreed with this.
Belarus categorically prohibited schemes to ship Western goods to the Russian market, Lukashenko said. “Like replacing the labels and shipping. There is none of this and won’t be. But we have processed and will process products that we see fit on Belarusian territory,” he said.
Lukashenko described Russia’s restrictions on imports of Belarusian food products as unfair competition. “The main problem is that various kinds of crooks in Russia want to feather their nest on the Russian market by jacking up prices. Shipments of Belarusian goods significantly restrain growth in prices in Russia, and we know into whose hands this plays,” he said.
Lukashenko agreed that the restriction of shipments of Belarusian products to Russia can be explained by the desire to tighten security, but insisted that he is absolutely sure of the quality of Belarusian food. “Anything can be invented, and any labels can be attached. But whatever good we have, we ship it to external markets, primarily to Russia, so that we can’t be criticized. And so I dismiss any allegations about the quality of Belarusian foodstuffs,” he said.
Lukashenko also dismissed allegations that Belarus has significantly increased the volumes of food shipments to Russia after the latter had imposed the food embargo. He said Belarus has not yet even reached its quotas on shipping meat, dairy, and fish products to Russia. He also noted that Belarusian processing companies lack capacity to significantly increase imports of Western raw products.
“I am outraged not only by Russia’s behavior but also by the absence of a backbone in our government, which has once again taken a dead problem to the presidential level. This problem has existed since August, and you are trying to persuade me that there is no problem,” Lukashenko said addressing the participants in the meeting.
