VZCZCXYZ0011
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMO #1536/01 1621400
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111400Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC PRIORITY 5494
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3755
INFO RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 4758
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5326

UNCLAS MOSCOW 001536 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FAS FOR OCRA/KUYPERS; ONA/SALLYARDS, 
MURPHY 
- OSTA/HAMILTON, BEAN 
PASS FSIS/JONES, DUTROW 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS 
STATE PASS USTR FOR MURPHY, KLEIN 
BRUSSELS PASS APHIS/FERNANDEZ 
GENEVA FOR USTR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD ECON WTO RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIAN VET SERVICE THREATENS 
UNILATERAL ACTION ON PORK CERTIFICATE 
 
REF: A) Moscow 001500  B) Moscow 002979 (2008) 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  On June 5th the Deputy Head 
of Russian Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary 
Surveillance Service (VPSS) informed via 
official letter that the VPSS would grant an 
extension on the negotiation of a frozen pork 
meat and by-products certificate to August 1, 
¶2009. (Ref A)  However, in a letter dated June 8, 2009 
(received June 10) head of VPSS Head of VPSS 
Sergey Dankvert further clarified that if an 
agreement is not reached by August 1, 2009, 
VPSS would unilaterally apply their draft 
certificate of February 10, 2009. The original 
scanned copy and courtesy translation of the 
VPSS letter were sent to USDA on June 11, 2009. 
An informal embassy translation of the VPSS 
letter follows.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) BEGIN TEXT: 
FEDERAL SERVICE FOR VETERINARY AND 
PHYTOSANITARY SURVEILLANCE 
Orlikov per., 1/11, 
107139, Moscow 84, 
Russian Federation 
Phone: (7 499) 975-4347 
Fax: (7 495) 607-5111 
E-mail: info@svfk.mcx.ru 
http://www.fsvps.ru 
 
Moscow, June 08, 2009 
No. FS-SD-2/5524 
 
Mr. James B. Miller 
Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign 
Agricultural Services 
USDA 
 
Dear Mr. Miller, 
 
The Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary 
Surveillance Service (VPSS) extends its regards 
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and in 
response to your letter of June 2, 2009 would 
like to express its gratitude for the active 
participation of the U.S. industry in the 
"round table" during our meetings in Paris. 
This event allowed us to enlarge mutual 
understanding of the tasks that are currently 
in front of the Russian and the U.S. relevant 
services as well as related to producers and 
consumers of meat and meat products. 
 
At the same time VPSS would like to draw your 
attention to the urgent necessity of 
negotiating the new veterinary certificate for 
frozen pork meat and by-products exported to 
the Russian Federation, a draft of which was 
sent to FSIS on February 10, 2009.  We believe 
that there is not any interconnection between 
the process of negotiating the document and the 
orientation visit of the VPSS delegation to the 
United States,which was planned for the first 
half of May, 2009. As you know, this visit was 
cancelled for that time because of the 
resolution of the Chief Medical Officer of the 
Russian Federation # 29 of May 06, 2009 "On the 
measures for prevention of the import and 
expansion of highly-pathogenic influenza virus 
in the territory of the Russian Federation" 
which recommended the Russians to avoid trips 
to the countries of the American continent. 
 
Now, taking into account your request and the 
application from FSIS, VPSS considers it 
possible to extend the deadline for the 
 
negotiation of the veterinary certificate until 
August 1, 2009.  If FSIS will not adopt the 
document before that date, VPSS will be obliged 
to bring it into force unilaterally. 
 
Mr. Miller, please let me assure you of my 
highest esteem. 
 
Head of VPSS 
S.A. Dankvert 
 
END TEXT. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Comment. It is clear that VPSS intends 
to push the limits of its authority by 
threatening to unilaterally disavow the pork 
certificate negotiated as part of the U.S.- 
Russia WTO market access agreement in November 
¶2006. Perhaps the June 9 announcement by Prime 
Minister Putin to withdraw Russia's WTO bid and 
reapply as a customs union with Kazakhstan and 
Belarus (Septel) may have emboldened VPPS  to 
make new threats to the U.S. pork trade with 
Russia.  (N.B. The VPSS letter was dated June 8 
but not transmitted to the embassy until June 
10, after Putin's June 9 announcement.)  In 
October 2008, when VPPS called into question 
the validity of the 2006 agreements with 
respect to plant inspections (REF B), Chief 
Russian WTO Negotiator Maksim Medvedkov 
confirmed that the 2006 agreements were valid 
and that there was a formal procedure in place 
which Russia would follow if they were to 
renegotiate those agreements.  In addition, 
since Putin's June 9 announcement about the 
customs union and WTO, Russian officials have 
told us they still intend to push forward with 
resolving SPS and other meat trade issues with 
the U.S. and other WTO members.(Septel) End 
Comment. 
 
BEYRLE