Russia turns back banned US poultry re-exported from Kazakhstan

Russia’s veterinary inspection service Rosselkhoznadzor has barred a 20 ton batch of US poultry from being re-exported into Russia from Kazakhstan, side-stepping Moscow's embargo, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday, azh.kz refers to itar-tass.

“The poultry meat was accompanied by a veterinary certificate for transportation of goods within the republic of Kazakhstan only,” the agency said, adding that chicken imports from the United States had been banned under President Vladimir Putin's decree limiting imports of US and European agricultural goods.

Rosselkhoznadzor specialists sent the batch of chicken back to Kazakhstan and instituted administrative proceedings against violators.

In response to Western sanctions, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on August 6 to ban for the next 12 months imports of farm produce from countries that imposed sanctions against Russia. Putin’s decree instructed his government to devise an action plan and draft a list of products that would be subject to the ban.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced on August 7 that the Russian government imposed a one-year ban on imports of all meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables from the United States, the 28 European Union countries, Canada, Australia and non-EU member Norway.

Combined with other import bans imposed earlier this year, the new trade measures cover Western imports worth $9.1 billion in 2013, according to Russian customs data.