China urges early lift of Russian ban on meat, rice

Chinese agricultural officials appealed in Moscow on May 31  to speed up talks with their Russian colleagues to eliminate bans on each other's agricultural products such as meat, rice and milk at an early date.

　　"We hope concerned departments from the two governments will speed up consultations on agricultural quarantine and settle those problems as soon as possible," said Qian Keming, director of a promotion center for agricultural trade under Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

　　Russia has banned imports of Chinese chilled meat and prepared meat product while China has forbidden imports of Russian wheat and animal products including milk since September 2004, due to disputes on quarantine. Russia imposed a ban on Chinese rice last December.

　　China-Russia agricultural trade, however, recorded fast growth in recent years. The average annual growth rate hit 30 percent since 1999. Bilateral agricultural trade volume amounted to 2.18 billion U.S. dollars last year, Qian told a press conference.

　　Editor: Lency