MINSK, 10 June (BelTA) - Belarus proposes to harmonize approaches to GM food in the Union State, Vice Chairman of the Commission on Budget and Finance of the Parliamentary Assembly, Chairman of the Permanent Commission on Agrarian Policy of the House of Representatives Viktor Shchetsko said at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State in Minsk, BelTA has learned.
“It is time we made a decision in the Union State on genetic modification: is it good or bad?” he said.
Speaker of the State Duma, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Belarus-Russia Union State Sergei Naryshkin, for his part, urged to tread carefully here. “We need to think about the consequences that can happen in 10, 20, or 50 years, and bear in mind that there are now other modern, eco-friendly technologies to increase agricultural production,” Sergei Naryshkin said.
Viktor Shchetsko also raised the topic of Belarusian agricultural imports to Russia. “Food embargo that Russia imposed in 2014 stimulated to some extent an increase in deliveries to the Russian market. However, the fundamental redistribution of product niches did not happen. In general the structure of exports has remained at the level of 2014,” he said.
“85% of Belarus' total exports of agricultural products and foodstuffs goes to Russia. However, Russia is stepping up investment in the agricultural industry, and Belarusian agricultural enterprises need to seriously restructure their work on the market of the neighboring country,” Viktor Shchetsko said.
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