BRUSSELS, January 20. /TASS/. The European Commission praises the outcome of talks with Russian veterinarian officials in Berlin and looks forward to reaching an arrangement on the resumption of agricultural exports to Russia, the commission's spokesman on health and food safety said on Tuesday.
Enrico Brivio said that the commission was to review the results of the Berlin talks with the Russian side shortly.
Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fyodorov said in today's interview with Handelsblatt, a leading German business newspaper, that Russia would lift the embargo on Western food exports only when the West revised its anti-Russian sanctions. The minister expressed hope that relations between Russia and the West would normalize soon, adding that "it is 100% clear that the ball is in the West's court.”
In August 2014, Russia imposed a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the European Union, United States, Australia, Canada and Norway in response to western sanctions against Moscow.