MOSCOW, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has lifted its
controversial ban on imports of Belarusian dairy products, and
the first deliveries will cross the border on June 18, Moscow's
chief sanitary official said Wednesday.
The ban imposed earlier this month on one of Belarus's key
exports sparked a furious reaction in Minsk, which called it
"economic discrimination" and boycotted a security summit in
Moscow in protest.
"We have signed a protocol satisfying both the Belarusian
and Russian sides now," Gennady Onishchenko told reporters
after talks with the agriculture and health ministers of
Belarus.
He said the first goods will be crossing the border on
Thursday morning.
Russia had banned imports of more than 1,000 types of
dairy products from Belarus, saying producers in the ex-Soviet
republic had failed to comply with new Russian standards
introduced last year.
In a tit-for-tat move, Belarus toughened customs controls
on its land border with Russia as of Wednesday, but immediately
backed down after Russia lifted its ban.
The deputy head of the Belarusian Customs Committee Sergei
Borisyuk told reporters that the decision to scrap the new
controls "was made in view of information from Russia on the
unhindered movement of Belarusian goods to Russia."
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