The Ministry of Agriculture of Kyrgyzstan believes that Kazakhstan unreasonably imposed restrictions on the import of apples, potatoes, persimmons and pomegranates. Press service of the Ministry stated.

On February 19, Kazakhstan introduced temporary quarantine phytosanitary measures, banning the import of products from Kyrgyzstan (food and plant potatoes, apples and persimmons) and Uzbekistan (pomegranates), despite paragraph 8 of the decision of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission dated May 16, 2016 on interaction of authorized bodies in case of introduction of a temporary quarantine phytosanitary measure.

It states that an authorized body of EEU country, which has decided to impose restrictions, informs the responsible structures of other states about this no later than one working day before. But the State Inspection Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan sent the official notification to the Plant Quarantine Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic only on February 21.

According to the same paragraph, the notification of quarantine measures taken should be sent to the Eurasian Economic Commission no later than within three working days from the date of the decision.

Kazakhstan should submit to the EEC and the authorized bodies of Kyrgyzstan substantiation of its position on the introduction of the temporary quarantine phytosanitary measure — laboratory tests that confirm the violations.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Kyrgyzstan stresses that official information on the introduction of the ban on February 19 appeared in the Kazakh media on February 20, the Kyrgyz side received official notification only two days later — on February 21. In addition, the notification refers to 59 cases of products infected with quarantine objects, but only 11 facts related to the prohibition of the import of apples, potatoes and persimmons.

The ministry explained that the introduction of these measures could not apply to the entire territory of Kyrgyzstan, therefore, a request was sent to the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan to confirm the laboratory conclusion on the identification of quarantine pests through independent experts.