MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, a WTO panel said it found Russia's blanket ban on EU pork imports to be inconsistent with a number of WTO articles as well as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement (SPS). The panel said that the ban was discriminatory and in excess of what is required to reach appropriate levels of protection, as well as stating that a ban on certain products from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland is inconsistent with international animal health standards.
"We are going in our own direction, there is nothing terrible about this, someone always wins and loses. Given the conditions with pressure being applied on Russia, I never doubted that the decision would be [anything but] solely political, the same as with the doping [scandal]," Dankvert told RIA Novosti.
Rosselkhoznadzor banned pork imports from EU member states in January, 2014, after an outbreak of the disease was recorded among pigs in Lithuania. Another outbreak has been recorded in Poland. Russia requested guarantees from EU authorities, which responded by calling the ban excessive and asked the WTO to form a panel to resolve the dispute.
