WASHINGTON, August 8 (RIA Novosti) – The Office of US Trade Representative hit out at Russia’s “self-defeating” foods embargo, claiming it would further isolate the country and hurt its economic growth.
“Going after western business will backfire on Russia causing more isolation and crippling growth. We are monitoring to see what specific actions Russia takes in practice, but this clearly represents a self-defeating escalation by Russia rather than a step toward resolution of the underlying issues,” USTR spokesman Trevor Kincaid told RIA Novosti.
The USTR is a US government agency that recommends trade policy to US President Barack Obama.
On Thursday, Russia banned all food imports from the United States in response to US sanctions that targeted entire sectors of the country’s economy.
The ban will deal a painful blow to US chicken producers as Russia is their second largest export market. According to the US National Chicken Council, last year the United States delivered some 267,000 tons of chicken worth $309 million to Russia.
Brazil said earlier its meat and poultry industry could compensate for US chicken deliveries to Russia and pledged to bump up its export figures by 150,000 tons.
All European fruit and vegetables, nuts, meat, poultry and seafood, as well as various dairy products are also included in the list drawn up on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a response to EU’s decision to toe US agenda on Moscow over the Ukrainian crisis.
Moscow said it was ready to review the terms of its import restrictions if Western partners show commitment to dialogue.
