Russia, Turkey to discuss trade limits

By Azernews

By Ali Mustafayev

Moscow and Ankara plan to hold consultations regarding issues on the valid trade bans, including the tomato ban, which raised a huge concern in Turkey.

Russia and Turkey didn't revise the reached agreements on lifting of restrictions on deliveries of the Turkish tomatoes and will discuss access of this production to the Russian market in the next weeks, said Alexei Gruzdev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Ria Novosti reported.

The first meeting will is scheduled for August 18.

“As it was mentioned in the declaration of the deputy prime ministers - nothing is reviewed. The corresponding consultations will be held in the nearest future, but they will be begun that is you shouldn't expect that the decision will be made. I think that the first contacts within the next several weeks will be, on all complex of questions, including on tomatoes,” he explained.

Gruzdev stressed that the sides will discuss the situation and exchange views within the reached agreements, mentioning that they have “a mechanism of the restriction settlement”.

Previously, Turkish Minister of the Economy Nihad Zeybekchi stated that Turkey will have to take contra measures, in case if Russia doesn’t remove the current restrictions on the import of Turkish tomato.

The Turkish government expresses hope for the effective dialogue during the negotiations which will start on 18 August in Izmir.

In 2016 Russia imposed a number of economic sanctions on Turkey, including the suspension of visa-free travel to Russia for Turkish citizens, limits on Turkish residents and companies doing business in Russia and bans on import of Turkish products.

Russia dropped restrictions on Turkish citrus fruits in late 2016 and both nations signed a memorandum agreeing to lift the vast majority of the bilateral trade restrictions laid down in 2015.  However, the Russian ban on Turkish tomato imports still remains in place.

Russia says that the reason lies in Russian agriculturists, who invested a large amount of money in the national agriculture during tensions between Russia and Turkey and who are still waiting for the profit.

The ban on the tomato import is considered to be the most negative for Turkey since Russia was the largest market for the Turkish tomato export with annual profit amounting to billions of dollars.