Posted August 7, 2014
As a result of
Western sanctions imposed over its support for rebels in Ukraine, Russia
ordered a ban on all imports of food from the United States and all fruit and
vegetables from Europe, according to a Reuters article by Polina
Devitt and Maria Tsvetkova available here.
The Los Angeles Times also published an article available here,
The Wall Street Journal here,
and The Des Moines Register here.
The ban will hit consumers at home and farmers in the West
the worst. Moscow is the biggest buyer of European fruit and vegetables and the
second biggest importer of U.S. poultry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree instructed the
government to create an action plan and draft a list of products that would be
banned. “Officials should take measures to balance the food market and prevent
an acceleration in price increases for agricultural and food products,"
according to LA
Times.
"America's farmers and ranchers would have been more
surprised if Russia's leaders had not announced bans and restrictions on food
and agricultural imports," said Bob Stallman, president of the American
Farm Bureau Federation. "It is unfortunate that the biggest losers in this
will be Russian consumers, who will pay more for their food now as well as in
the long run,” according to The
Des Moines Register.
Putin is attempting to show that the West is not equipped to
defend Ukraine, said Andrew S. Weiss, a Russia expert and vice president for
Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "When someone
is cornered, do they relent or do they escalate? Throughout the crisis, Putin
has been in favor of escalating," Mr. Weiss said, according to The
Wall Street Journal.
If Russia banned
all U.S. meat and poultry, it would not cause devastating effects on American
farmers.
Last year,
U.S. meat and poultry Russian exports totaled $329 million, which is less
than a fourth of 2008 levels, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Russia only
represents 7 percent of U.S. chicken exports by weight now, which was 40 percent in the
1990s, according to the U.S.A. Poultry and Egg Export Council.
The
biggest U.S. exports to Russia are commercial aircraft employed in
state-controlled airlines, cars, mining equipment, and oil field machinery,
which were not threatened by Putin's decree. Overall, Russia represents about
1 percent of U.S. international trade, but it represented almost 7 percent of the EU's
exports in 2013.
Russia has already banned a several agricultural imports
from other countries that imposed sanctions, but cited food-safety concerns.
McDonald's Corp. was accused of violating safety rules and was threatened by
Russian regulators to ban the sale of some products, according
to LA
Times.
Russia
spends $2.7 billion a year on European fruit and vegetables and imports large
amounts of meat, dairy products and processed food, however; Russia produces
all the enough grain to meet domestic demands and provide a large surplus of
wheat and barley for export.
For more information on international trade, please visit
the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
