The Hungarian Government is pushing for a full lifting of the ban on meat and food product shipments to Russia, according to Péter Balás, Deputy State Secretary of the Economic Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungarian newspaper the Budapest Sun reports. "The Russian ban has already been partially lifted, but we are currently in talks for its complete removal," said Balás. Russia has so far lifted the ban, instigated as a result of fears over foot-and-mouth disease, on shipments of live poultry, fish, fish meal and fish products, eggs, incubated eggs and day-old chicks, heat-treated ready-made meat products, dairy products and animal feed from Hungary. However, Balás stated that the ban imposed on March 26 on products and produce including Hungarian beef and pork had not been lifted. Elsewhere the Japanese government has lifted a ban on imports of pork and mutton from a limited number of EU nations after determining that there was a reduced risk of foot-and- mouth disease entering the country. The lifting of the ban came one month after Japan suspended imports of pork, mutton and their processed products from the European Union on March 23 to keep foot-and-mouth disease out of the country, said Agriculture Ministry spokesman Takehisa Yamamoto. Yamamoto said imports will be allowed from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Austria, effective on Wednesday. Japan also will allow imports from Britain and the Netherlands on condition that three weeks pass after butchered pork and mutton and other processed meat are quarantined there, Yamamoto said. Bans will continue in imports from Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain due to a lack of sufficient data to change the ban, the Ministry spokesman added.
