MINSK, 3 February (BelTA) – Belarus is ready to strengthen cooperation with the European Union in the agricultural sector, Belarus’ Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats said as he met with Head of the EU Delegation to Belarus Andrea Wiktorin, BelTA has learned.
“We are ready to strengthen and develop cooperation with the European Union in the agricultural and food sector. Products of European companies are popular on our market. We would like our products to be present on the European market, too,” the minister said.
Leonid Zayats stressed that one of the barriers for Belarusian products are high duties. “We would like to have an equal exchange when every kilo of products imported from the EU is compensated by the same amount of Belarusian exports to the EU,” he said.
Belarus is interested in European investments, especially in the processing companies. “First of all, we are talking about milk processing. We have big plans on entering the Chinese market. Yet, we do not have enough capacities,” said Leonid Zayats.
Head of the EU Delegation to Belarus Andrea Wiktorin noted in turn that the EU is interested in improving cooperation with Belarus both within the European good-neighbor policy programs and bilateral projects. “I believe it is important to implement the green economy program which also includes development of green farming,” she said. Talking about the barriers to the European market, Andrea Wiktorin said that Belarus has chances to reduce them, with one of them being the WTO accession.