Inspection instead of embargo

The new Polish government has not changed its position in the meat war with Russia

First, the lifting of the embargo on meat supplies to Russia, and then the invitation of Russian inspectors to Polish factories. The Minister of Agriculture of the new Polish government, Marek Sawicki, assured Russian journalists in Warsaw yesterday that the position of the Polish authorities remains unchanged. He said that he hopes to meet with Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev in the very near future. The new Polish minister promises to approach the discussion of the meat issue “without prejudices, including political ones.” However, the only concession from the Polish side, according to him, may be that Poland authorizes the arrival of Russian inspectors not after, but simultaneously with the lifting of the embargo.

In support of his principle, expressed in Russian by the famous phrase “in the morning - money, in the evening - chairs,” the Polish minister asked a rhetorical question: “How can we force private enterprises to let in Russian inspectors if these enterprises were not given the opportunity to export meat to Russia ? However, the minister’s reference to the fact that Polish enterprises are tortured by endless checks does not seem very objective. The day before the conversation with the Polish minister, meat producers at an agricultural exhibition in Warsaw assured Russian journalists that as soon as the issue of supplies of Polish meat to the Russian Federation was resolved at the political level, they were ready to petition the Polish veterinary service to include them in the lists of inspected exporters. Moreover, according to their assurances, inspections by both Russian and European inspectors are annual, traditional and customary.

When asked why the previous Polish government, in negotiations on meat supplies, linked the issue of the embargo with Poland’s veto on the signing of a new agreement between Russia and the EU, the minister replied that he understood Ardanovsky’s position (Krzysztof Ardanovsky is the chief negotiator on meat, who retained the status of Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the new Polish government): “If negotiations with Russia reached a dead end, we could not sit idly by, otherwise we could lose the sales market.”

Deputy Minister Ardanovsky, who was present at the meeting, in turn said that Poland would not want to lose the sales market in neighboring Russia, although he admitted that he was looking for new markets for Polish meat. He explained his tough position as follows: “The Russian population has a positive assessment of Polish products, including due to their competitive price. If Russian factories do not want to buy Polish meat, that is their business, but by deciding to ban all exports of raw meat from Poland to Russia, the Russian authorities have limited their buyers and consumers in the right to choose. And we cannot agree with this.”

Irina SKLYAROVA, Warsaw