OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2011. “There are no bans. Nobody has banned anything”, he said. “Everything that was imported to Belarus from Moldova, is still being imported”, he said. As it was reported earlier, Moldova’s Prime Minister Vladimir Filat, speaking at the Government’s meeting, said Belarus has temporarily suspended issue of certificates for import of wines, wine materials and brandies produced in Moldova and Georgia.

The respective decision was signed by the Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Inspector of Belarus. According to the document, received by the Moldovan party, it will be valid until a special order. Vladimir Filat urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova to check this information and to find out the reasons for such a decision. Prime Minister said if the matter concerns an artificial blocking of the Moldovan export of wine production to Belarus for the political reasons, Chisinau would take retaliatory measures in respect of Minsk.

Vladimir Filat emphasized that good relations between the countries should be mutual. In 2010, Belarus ranked the second largest purchaser of Moldovan alcohol production with 23.5% of the total volume of supplies. Moldova exported wine production to Belarus in 2010 in the amount of \\$41.33 million, down 6.1% from the previous year. However, in the quantity terms, the supplies grew. Russia was Moldovan wines and brandies main consumer last year with 35.4% of the total volume of supplies. It purchased wine production wroth USD62.2 million from Moldova, or 19.3% more than in the previous year.