The Russian Federation and the European Commission held the first talks on combating the smuggling of agricultural products. This was announced at a press conference by the deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor Yevgeny Nepoklonov, who heads the Russian delegation, together with the Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service Ruslan Davydov, writes TASS.
"This is the first consultation in recent years with the participation of all four general directorates of the European Commission, which are responsible for export-import operations in the EU, customs regulation, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, and the fight against smuggling and trafficking," he said.
"We discussed issues of cooperation between the organizations on the transparent movement of animal and plant products, and the detection of contraband goods," he said.
According to him, the Russian Federation proposed the establishment of an information system to the European Commission, that would unite Russia's customs system and the European system of control of origin, which would create the conditions for a rapid and smooth clearance and verify the origin of agricultural products during their crossing of the Russian border.
"For a long time the European Commission has not taken any action in this direction, with the result that Russia has received tens of thousands of tons of produce with uncertain origins," said Nepoklonov.
“We have repeatedly sent notifications of these cases to the European Commission, but did not get clear answers from them," he added.
The Russian Federation invited the Commission to make access open to issued export certificates for agricultural products as Internet resources, so the Russian customs officers can quickly check the information, stated the deputy head of the Federal Customs Service Ruslan Davydov. “It can supplement the exchange of information via secure channels. All this should make it impossible for fraudsters to engage in smuggling schemes,” he said.
