HELSINKI, August 14, /ITAR-TASS/. Finland will impose no sanctions on Russia as a response to Russia’s ban on food imports from a number of countries of the European Union, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said on Wednesday.
He said he had informed the EU leadership and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about his country’s position. “My message to them had two points. First, we will impose no sanctions in response. Second, our agrarian sector needs certain assistance,” he told the Yle television company.
He said his country and Russia had good and mutually beneficial relations.
On August 7, Russia imposed a package of measures to respond to economic sanction from the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union and Norway. Thus, Russia banned for a term of one year the imports of fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products from these countries. Some types of ready-to-eat meat and fish products (with the exception of sausages) have not fallen under the ban. According to the Russian Federal Customs Service, these countries exported 9.1 billion U.S. dollar worth of products, which are now on the sanction list, in 2013, with the European Union countries accounting for 6.5 billion U.S. dollars of that sum. Other countries’ exports were much more moderate: Norway - 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, the United States - 843.8 million U.S. dollars, Canada - 373.6 million U.S. dollars, and Australia - 182 million U.S. dollars.