MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. Turkey’s restrictions on deliveries of Russian grain hamper restoration of full-fledged relations between the two countries, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said during a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Mehmet Simsek.
"The actions of the Turkish party in relation to Russian suppliers of wheat, corn, sunflower oil contradict the spirit and the results of the meeting of the High Level Cooperation Council that was chaired by the Russian and Turkish presidents on March 10. They also contradict the recent moves on abolishing a number of restrictions against Turkey and hamper restoration of full-fledged relations," Dvorkovich said.
At the same time, the parties expressed their intention to intensify mutually beneficial trade and economic relations between the two countries in various fields, as well as to remove existing restrictions in those areas.
Earlier, Turkey decided to introduce duties on grain supplies from Russia following the request of local exporters of agricultural products. In particular, the exporters are not satisfied with the Russian restrictions on imports of tomatoes and some other Turkish products.
Turkey excluded Russia from the list of countries free of duties for imports of agricultural products starting March 15. Now, Russia and some other countries are not on the list of states with duty-free imports that can deliver commodities for further processing and export free of payment of the duty amounting to 130%. Previously Russian exporters and their Turkish customers imported grain meant for processing and further export with zero duty, while they still had to pay a 130% duty in order to sell products locally.
Turkey is Russia’s second-biggest grain importer in volume terms after Egypt.