30.12.2010

Russia

Russian authorities announced Dec. 27 that they will cut in half next year's import tariff rate quotas (TRQs).

Russia will permit imports of frozen poultry meat of up to 600,000 metric tons in the coming year. The TRQ for 2010 was supposedly set at 780,000 mt, although exporters had trouble filling that quota because of Russia's changing import standards.

The announcement of the new TRQ decree comes at the end of a volatile year for traders doing business with Russia, where officials have followed a conscious policy of trying to substitute local production for imported product. They have stimulated domestic poultry production and erected barriers to imports. As a result, exporters like those in the U.S. have found it difficult to ship product into Russia. Because of new non-tariff barriers, U.S. firms were unable to export poultry into Russia for most of 2010.