Canada must halt meat shipments to Russia Feb 11 - veterinary service

MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Russia's veterinary and phytosanitary oversight body Rosselkhoznadzor has warned its Canadian counterpart that it will have to halt frozen meat supplies to Russia from February 11-28.

"Canada has informed us that it is willing to fulfill our requirements on ractopamine starting on February 28 of this year, but since we aren't seeing any concretization of these measures, we are warning it that from February 11-28 meat shipments to Russia should be halted," Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert told Interfax.

Dankvert said that this is a forced measure and will be valid so long as Canada refuses to fulfill Russia's demands. In particular, meat deliveries have to be accompanied by the results of research on products for ractopamine, as well as evidence that this beta stimulant is absent in the product.

"We expect similar measures from our American colleagues," he added.

As reported, Russia slapped a temporary restriction on imports of refrigerated meat from the U.S. and Canada, which will enter into force on February 4. In addition, Rosselkhoznadzor warned its American counterpart that imports of frozen meat might be suspended on February 11 if it does not undertake measures to research products for ractopamine content and fails to accompany deliveries with the corresponding documents.

Last November 23, Rosselkhoznadzor informed its American colleagues of the need to monitor supplies for ractopamine and attach documents evidencing the absence of the stimulant to these deliveries. However, the U.S. has yet to react to this information. As a result, Rosselkhoznadzor has been forced to continuously monitor American meat products itself, using Russian government resources to do so. Rosselkhoznadzor has no intention of doing this anymore, Dankvert said.

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