MINSK, 15 June (BelTA) – The issue with the access for Belarusian agricultural products to the Russian market raises concerns, State Secretary of the Union State Grigory Rapota said at the 52nd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Belarus and Russia in Minsk on 15 June, BelTA has learned.
“The problems with the access for Belarusian agricultural products to the Russian market is of particular concern. At the same time food products and agricultural raw materials continuously account for 35% of the Belarusian exports to Russia. Moreover, in the past three years, despite the ongoing disputes, agricultural supplies to Russia have remained at a high level,” Grigory Rapota said.
According to the state secretary, mechanisms of cooperation are still underdeveloped in some areas. “The parties have not addressed the issue of tracking the movement of controllable goods to Belarus and Russia. This means there is no unified or, at least, integrated information system. Mechanisms of cooperation between state bodies that control the quality of products are also far from being perfect,” Grigory Rapota said.
The Russian-Belarusian cooperation in the energy sector, according to the state secretary, has been marked with a milestone, which is a high-level agreement on price and quality parameters for raw hydrocarbon supplies from Russia to Belarus. “I call it a historical moment not because the parties have reached an agreement on the major parameters for the next three years. They have developed rules that can work in the area in the future,” Grigory Rapota explained. The commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will play an important part in the development of the unified electrical power system. It will introduce its adjustments in the electricity balance not only between Belarus and Russia, but also with the neighboring states.
As for the united migration policy and common visa space, Grigory Rapota noted that the two countries are trying to tackle problems that emerged after Russia's introduction of new rules for the aircraft coming from Belarus. Efforts are taken to work out conditions for the barrier-free movement of the citizens of Belarus and Russia. “I should say that drastic measures have been undertaken in the recent days to keep the order of things we had before,” the state secretary said.
