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LITHUANIA EXPRESSES CONCERN REGARDING LATVIA’S DECISION TO LIMIT PORK IMPORT

On 5 June, the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia adopted the law on introduction of domestic pork market protection measures safeguarding the interests of Latvia’s pig breeders by setting tariff quotas and import duties. According to the Lithuanian experts, such unilateral decision by Latvia violates the trilateral Free Trade Agreement and the Agreement on Safeguards of the World Trade Organisation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania (MFA) regrets the urgent manner in which the Latvian Parliament passed the law before the consultations were completed and the meeting of the Free Trade Agreement’s Joint Committee took place. Lithuania considers the possibility of applying countermeasures after Latvia took the unilateral decision to introduce tariff quotas for pork and its by-products as well as duties on live pig imports. Lithuania is concerned that Latvia introduced the market protection measures less than a year till the Baltic States’ accession to the European Union, as such measures threaten the appropriate functioning of the Free Trade Agreement, the development of business relations and slow down the integration of the Baltic States to the common internal market of the European Union.