Even “the sanction mouse” won’t slip through

Between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states will function a unified system of electronic control of the issuance of phytosanitary and veterinary documents, which will monitor the sanctioned products on the territory of member countries of the Union.

In her interview to RUSARMINFO, Yulia Melano, Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman, has stressed that the work on the establishment of this system has already begun. According to her, the launch of this project will make it possible to monitor what product is imported in each EEU country, by which issuing structure it is certified and what kind tests it has passed.

She notes that the main objective of this project is to exclude the possibility of re-exports from the EEU member countries to the territory of Russia of the products under the sanctions.

«There are chances that the products prohibited for import into Russia can still enter the territory of the Russian Federation through our colleagues in the Eurasian Union. The negligent offenders, who try to have smuggled their products, resort to fraud. First, they import these products into the territory of one of the Union countries, and then — into Russia,» explains the representative of the federal agency.

In his interview to RUSARMINFO, Alexander Nikulin, deputy head of the Center for Economic Studies, RISI, has expressed the view that since all the EEU countries trade in the same area, accordingly, Russia will have to take some actions on their territory as well. The essence of the Russian Rosselkhoznadzor initiative is to monitor and prevent the import of the remarked goods into Russia through any EEU member state, as it was in the case of Belarus, where local entrepreneurs were remarking the European goods to import them into the territory of the Russian Federation.

Is it possible for Russia to demand the destruction of the products under the sanctions on the EEU territory? Alexander Nikulin believes that “Russia will not demand from its partners of the union to fulfill its own desires. This will be possible only if they join the sanctions.» Note: The initiative to create a unified system of electronic control of the issuance of phytosanitary and veterinary documents belongs to Rosselkhoznadzor. Subsequently, a corresponding request has been sent to the relevant structures of the EEU participating countries. The terms of forming the unified system are not specified yet.