Russia's Federal Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare Protection may ban all wine imports from Moldova from Friday, Kommersant business daily quoted the service's chief Gennady Onishchenko as saying on Thursday.
July 30 was the deadline for Moldovan authorities to speak out on the subject, Onishchenko was quoted by Kommersant as saying.
"We must understand what they are going to do as far as producers and authorities are concerned by Friday. As far as I know, the industry generates the bulk of the country's budget revenues. I hope that they will inform us of their plans by Friday. Moreover, the Moldovan ambassador has already asked to be received to hand in a document on the subject signed by the country's authorities. We will decide which measures to take after considering its content," Onishchenko said.
Russia, which previously imported 80% of wine produced in Moldova, initially embargoed it in March 2006. In 2007, over 40 Moldovan wine producing enterprises passed sanitary and epidemiological checks and supplies resumed.
However, Moldovan exporters and Russian wine importers accuse Russia of banning Moldovan wine for political, rather than health reasons.
Kommersant said that the Federal Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare Protection found dibutyl plasticiser and pesticides at the end of June, when Moldova's acting President Mihai Ghimpu declared June 28, 1940, as the Day of Soviet Occupation.
"No Moldovan wine importer has received an official opinion from the Federal Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare Protection stating that dibutyl plasticiser was found in its product," Kommersant quoted Georgy Ivanov, head of Yantarnya Grozd wine importer, as saying. Ivanov claimed no checks were done for dibutyl plasticiser.
The paper also quoted Moldovan scientists as saying that there were no clear cut international norms for levels of dibutyl plasticiser in wine.
MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti)
