Russia announced a new “Cold War” through the embargo applied on agricultural products from EU, US, Norway, Australia and Canada responding to sanctions imposed by these countries because of Russia’s involvement in the crisis in Ukraine.
Greece watches the developments with great anxiety and restrained optimism and is waiting the release of the final list of products on which the Russian embargo will apply for a year. The Greek government has received oral assurances that the list of products will be selective. However, there are fears that if the trade war between West and Russia is escalated, there will be incalculable consequences.
According to ministry sources, the efforts of Greeks to ease the aggression towards Russia within EU and the way Greece responded to help the Russian tourists who were spending their holiday in Greece when the two Russian tour operators went bankrupt is recognized, although Russia has not commented on whether Greece’s restrained optimism is justified,
“The decisions President Putin has made are decisions that concern the whole of the western world: the EU, the U.S., Canada, Australia. We are in ongoing contact to ensure the smallest possible impact or, if possible, no practical impact at all. I don’t want to reveal right now what process we are using. Greece, as a country of the European Union that meets its community obligations is trying to have the best possible relations with all countries and the government is trying to protect Greek agricultural production.” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Evangelos Venizelos.
The list of products that are banned for import into Russia for a period of one year includes five product categories, meat and sausage, seafood, vegetables, fruit and dairy products, according to the list published by the Russian state news agency, RIA-Novosti.
Baby food, alcoholic drinks, including wine, and olive oil are not included in the list.
According to an article published in Greek newspaper “Kathimerini”, Greece will loose about 238 million dollars or 178 million euros, due to the Russian embargo, based on 2013 data.
The above loss does not include the possible decrease of job positions in the affected sectors, as well as the risk of terminating trade agreements that were built with many difficulties.
It is worth noting that in 2013 the total Greek exports to Russia totalled 406 million euros.
Moreover, the countries that did not impose any sanctions on Russia and the Russian embargo does not apply for their products, are preparing to increase their exports to Russia.
Russia has already begun discussions with Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay. Also, the Russian embargo to European countries is seen as a great opportunity for Serbian companies to increase their exports to Russia.
According to the article, the Russian embargo on imports from EU has already come into force for peach-producing areas of Pella and Imathia in Greece, since the producers did not load their products on trucks, but they left them in refrigerators.
About 50% of fruit produced in these areas is exported to Russia.
