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Russian Grain Union considers agreement with China discriminating

President of the Russian Grain Union Arkady Zlochevsky said the problem should be tackled politically

© Yuri Smityuk/ITAR-TASS

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MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Lack of large-scale supplies of Russian wheat and other grain crops to China is largely related to the discriminating nature of the agreement, President of the Russian Grain Union (RGU) Arkady Zlochevsky said on Wednesday.

"We believe even norms set out in the protocol [between China and Russia] are discriminatory, to say nothing of norms applied for the time being. Therefore, the problem may be solved in my opinion from a political perspective, rather than in terms of phytosanitary or technical regulations," the expert said.

Too many restrictions are in norms set out in the protocol, the expert added. In particular, regional separation is a strong barrier to initiation of supplies. "We have to supply from certain territories only," Zlochevsky said.

Russia and China signed protocols on phytosanitary requirements to wheat, corn, rice, soya and colza in December 2015. However, no large-scale supplies have started yet. Russia supplied 500,000 tonnes of soybeans, corn and colza to China in 2015.

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