January 23 2006, 15:53

Russia and Ukraine did not reach agreement on animal products imports

According to Russia's Prime-TASS news agency, negotiations of Russian and Ukrainian representatives of the two countries' veterinary bodies on elimination of ban for supplies of Ukrainian meat and milk products to Russia have not yielded any result, a spokesman for Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor said to media on Monday commenting on the meeting of the two parties that had just had pace in Moscow.

According to the spokesman, "the documents submitted by the Ukrainian party and the proposals it had made were not distinguished by a concrete character, nor were they providing any guaranties of full safety of the meat and milk products, supplied to the Russian market".

Therefore, he said, "it will be possible to lift the ban only after a memorandum about cooperation in the veterinary field is signed, and the preparation of such a document is rather a lengthy process".

Russia imposed limitations for imports of the whole range of Ukrainian livestock products on January 20 this year.