U.S. meat supply to Russia has been barred as the United States and the Russian Federation differed in the evaluation of causes of this circumstance. Russia asserts that the main cause to ban it was the ractopamine drug’s existence in the US meat. The US maintains that it is Russia’s response to the Magnitsky Act acceptance by the Senate along with accusing Russia of disobeying WTO laws.
Rosselhohznadzor- Russia’s Federal Agency for Agricultural Control- had banned imports of meat having ractopamine on December 7th, 2012. According to researchers, ractopamine drug is banned in almost 160 countries consisting of Russia and China and is a food additive to reduce fat content in beef as well as pork. It is given in food to let animals grow only the muscle mass and not fat. This can cause food poisoning in some cases and also affects human cardiovascular system. But this drug is permitted in Canada, United States, and 22 more countries. World Health Organization’s Codex Alimentarius- accepted in July 2012- by envoys of 186 countries in Rome permitted the ractopamine contents in meat.
Officially, Russia does not disallow the pork and beef supply from the US. It only advised a few countries; including the US to supply documents telling that the animals were not fed ractopamine– a drug banned in Russia. This was given only to the U.S. Canada, Brazil, and Mexico and not other 20 countries where the use of drug is allowed. The warned countries have no proper expertise in this as it was not needed before. Rosselhohznadzor also pledged to bring in a transitional period, till the January, 2013 end for such countries. But the specific execution methods stay unclear.
Among the foreign nations, this move from Russian Agency for Agricultural Control would affect the US highest as Russia happens to be fourth largest importer of meat from the U.S. as it spends almost $500 million every year on it. Russians eat about 1.4 percent of pork and 0.6 percent of total beef created in the US. Currently, over 200 meat products containers worth almost $20 million are on the way from the United States to Russia.
However, the shortage of U.S. meat in the Russian market would badly affect the Russian economy as the share of total imported meat in Russia makes up for more than a third.
The United States analysts view this meat import ban as political move citing that Russia reacted so to against the recent acceptance of Magnitsky Act by U.S. Congress by 92 votes “for” it and 4 votes “against” it). A day earlier- December 6- the U.S. Senate almost collectively accepted the bill to impose visa as well as financial sanctions against those Russian officials who were involved in the death of Hermitage investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. According to Washington, first three parts of the document reveal the communication between the U.S. and Russia in WTO.
Above all, the bill eradicates the amendment on Jackson-Vanik for Russia as well as Moldova, adopted in 1974- which is expected to be signed by American President Barack Obama in the coming days.
Rich Nelson, chief strategist at Allendale Inc, a research as well as brokerage company said- “It appears to be a revengeful act to the passage of trade bill of Senate with Russia… it is a certain fact.”
When the Russian officials came to know about US analysts associating the mean import ban with the Magnitsky Act, they seemed surprised.
Victor Supyan- the Deputy Director of Institute of the US and Canada- informed Pravda.Ru that- “One can suppose whether it was an act of revenge or not, although measure was based on some additives content in meat which do not meet the Russian hygienic standards.”
In the past, the Russian side assured to take all inclusive, multi faceted, and extremely tough measures whether the Magnitsky Act should be approved in the USA. At this moment, the US blames Russia of infringing the WTO rules, to which Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich informed the Kommersant newspaper in an interview that “Every WTO member breaks rules, which is usual.”
However, the U.S. officials said that they are expecting positive actions from Russia in amending this situation and also expressed a hope that Russia would remove the meat imports ban in the near future and fulfill its duty as a member of WTO. But Russia does not see even a single infringement in its actions.
