The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) members continue cooperation with US partners despite difficulties on political level, Viktor Spassky, the director of the Integration Development Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), told Sputnik Tuesday.
“We continue relations between businesses of our members, and with the United States on bilateral level, and the results in trade are positive,” Spassky said.
Even though the relations with the United States were tense, the cooperation in different areas of economy and between various businesses continued, he added.
Spassky also noted that, according to the 2013 data and the data for first part of 2014, the trade between EEU countries and the United States has seen some positive dynamic.
“Trade between the EEU members and the United States was higher by 12 percent, and import of the union members was higher by 20 percent, and it’s the latest statistics, without any sanctions,” he explained.
Spassky added that the officials were preparing several contracts to be signed in the future once the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia were no longer in place.
The Russian authorities are planning to invite US officials to discuss an issue of antibiotics misuse in American meat, Spassky said.
“We have some problems in this sphere [food trade] with the enterprises of the United States, because food products, meat products in particular, today have some problems with level of antibiotics,” the director of EEC Integration Development Department said. “That’s why the Russian authorities are planning may be to invite the American authorities in January to sit and discuss this problem.”
Russia imposed temporary restrictions on imports of poultry meat and poultry products from the United States on December 5.
“Meat products produced in the United States may have more antibiotics than in accordance with the sanitary requirements of the union [Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)],” Spassky explained. “That’s why we don’t want to buy these products, because the level of tetracycline is pretty high.”
