Bires Wants to Discuss Barriers to Trade with Ukrainian Counterpart

Bratislava, September 20 (TASR) - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Jozef Bires intends to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart online later on Wednesday to discuss barriers to the mutual trade in agricultural commodities, TASR learnt after a session of the government on the same day. "I'd like to reach a fair agreement with my Ukrainian colleague, so as to prevent even hints of a lawsuit or any restrictions to the mutual trade," said Bires. Bires claimed that if Ukrainians have prepared a system of certification of Ukrainian grain imports, Slovakia intends to test it. "If the system proves to be functional, we could lift the measure (ban on Ukrainian grain imports)," he remarked. Bires added that if Ukraine was preparing guarantees of controlled exports to Slovakia or other neighbouring countries, it should have consulted them beforehand. "We would have cleared the air then, and maybe Slovakia wouldn't have had to embrace a unilateral ban on imports," he said. mf/mcs