Serbia "lucky to avoid red card" over meat export scandal

(Tanjug, file)

Serbia "lucky to avoid red card" over meat export scandal

BELGRADE -- "We were lucky to avoid being shown a'“red card' by Russia, as it could easily have happened," Minister of Trade and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić says.

Ljajić spoke on Wednesday after returning from Moscow, where, Tanjug reported, "a problem concerning allegedly defective meat products for export to Russian markets has been settled with the Russian side."

“An investigation into the entire case is still underway,” Ljajić told the RTS, adding that oversights related to the export of meat from Serbia to Russia "could be dealt with on a daily basis and that there was no systemic failure."

Presenting his opinion, which is still to be confirmed by the investigation, Ljajić said that the issue at hand "had to do with negligence and stupidity of one of our exporters,” rather than “intent to deceive somebody.”

“Of course, we confirmed that the mistake had been made, and no matter what the intention was, consequences are serious and could have been even worse,” the minister said, pointing out that the Russian side had expressed “absolute understanding.”

For now, we have been shown a “yellow card,” although we deserved a red one, said Ljajić, stressing that controls in pork trade between Serbia and Russia would be much stricter in the future.

He also spoke about "the stupidity of one exporter, whose shipment contained packages of meat with stamps reading 'Made in Croatia' and 'Made in Spain'."

Serbia is currently the only European country that has a permit to export pork to Russia, but this applies only to products produced in Serbia itself.

Earlier in the week, Russian...

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