This story was updated with a correction. Read the new version here.
MOSCOW, December 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s ban on imports of meat products from the US have cost Washington from $5-6 billion since it went into effect in February, the US Ambassador to Russia said in an interview with a Russian newspaper published Wednesday.
Ambassador Michael McFaul told the business daily Kommersant that the ban was a big problem for the US, and that he would personally continue to work for it to be removed.
McFaul, a former political science professor at Stanford University who has served as ambassador to Russia since 2011, stressed that the US and Russia continue to work together in other areas.
Russia banned US pork and beef imports over concerns about ractopamine, a growth additive used in an estimated 80 percent of US pork and cattle.
About two dozen countries have approved ractopamine as safe for use, but the European Union, China, Taiwan and several other countries have joined Russia in banning use of the drug.
