Agro resistance test

Journalists heard this news from Ivan Bisiuk, chair of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine. In his words, the commission, consisting of 14 people who make up four groups, will work in Ukraine for two weeks from June 7 onwards. “We hope that, following the inspections, a list of businesses eligible for access to the Customs Union countries will increase. Now there are 63 enterprises of this kind,” Bisiuk commented.

It will be recalled that the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan recently decided to take some protective foreign-trade measures, which will also affect Ukraine. As Den noted in the article “Pressure or a ‘New Format’?” on June 2, 2011, the Ukrainians will have to revise the current trade regime with the Customs Union countries. And the impression is they must do it very quickly. For, no sooner had the Customs Union made the latest statement a week ago on revising customs clearance regulations for the Ukrainian metallurgy products being taken to the territory of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, than the union came up with a new initiative in its trade with Ukraine. This time the union set its sights on Ukrainian agrarians.

The Day asked some experts to comment on the abovementioned Customs Union inspection. What is its goal and, moreover, what consequences may the inspection have for Ukraine’s agrarian-industrial complex?

COMMENTARY

Alex LISSITSA, president, Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business association:

“The point is that Ukrainian meat and dairy businesses will be examined to see if they meet certain trade standards. In other words, the inspection will decide whether or not to allow the export of produce to the Customs Union member states. While earlier veterinaries and experts from Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia used to visit Ukraine and conducted examinations independently from one another, this time there will be, so to speak, a comprehensive inspection. Naturally, its result will be quite noteworthy, for it will apply to the entire Customs Union market. In other words, if the Ukrainian meat and dairy businesses do not pass the test, they will lose not one market, but all three.

“Our meat and dairy producers have more than enough grounds to be worried. When EU inspectors come to Ukraine, they have a clear-cut list of demands failure to meet which means a ban on taking this produce onto their market. Conversely, Ukraine’s previous experience of agro inspections, particularly from the Russian Federation, shows a diametrically opposite situation. They do not have any clear-cut demands about what, where, and how one should comply with another. In other words, Ukrainian meat and dairy producers do not in fact know the ‘red line’ which one must not cross when preparing their goods for selling to a ‘neighbor.’ So under what conditions can an inspection be conducted?

“As for whether the Customs Union intends to cut in this way the imports of Ukrainian milk and meat by finding, as a result of the inspections, some ‘grounds’ for trade restrictions, it is quite a likely occurrence. Experience shows that you can expect anything from our neighbors. Yet it should be noted that a large number of Ukrainian meat and dairy producers are working today thanks to Russian investments. So this raises a question: Who are they going to cut off the oxygen in this way?”