Russia's Tobacco Lobby for Fewer Curbs on Imports From India

Source from:  financialexpress.com Moscow Wednesday, January 30, 2008  01/31/2008

Russia's tobacco lobby is seeking relaxation of curbs on import of indispensable raw material for cigarette manufacturers in the wake of blanket ban on the purchase of plant products from India by the country's phytosanitary watchdog. Rosselkhoznadzor-veterinary and phytosanitary watchdog-imposed the ban on import of all the Indian plant products from January 28, after it claimed to have found 'Khapra' beetle - a deadly grain pest in a consignment of Indian sesame seeds at Novorossiisk port on the Black Sea. However, after an interaction with the Indian embassy and pressure from powerful tea and coffee lobby, the regulator agreed to allow bulk import through its better-equipped quarantine posts in the Baltic Sea ports in the north-west of the country. An official of the association of the tobacco processing industry hinted that they want that the import of tobacco should be allowed on the similar conditions as in the case of tea and coffee and their derivatives. "We are shortly planning to ne