US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Trade Affairs Ramin Tolui confirmed that the United States does not seek to put obstacles in the way of countries that import food and fertilizer from Russia.
“It is important to note that the US does not want to have barriers to the ability of countries to buy food and fertilizer from Russia so that (there are barriers) for these products to enter international markets,” Toloi said during the conference. call to reporters.
He explained that countries should contact the US Treasury, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (which is responsible for sanctions), or US embassies if they have difficulty making these authorized transactions.
The situation in Ukraine and the wide-ranging sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and the European Union have led to disruptions in the supply of grain, which has increased the risk of a food crisis in many countries of the world. Since the beginning of the year, prices for wheat and corn have risen significantly. And wheat stocks, as noted at a meeting of the UN Security Council on May 21, will last the world for only ten weeks, and the situation is worse than during the 2007-2008 crisis.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that the global food crisis arose long before the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, including due to the epidemic and the miscalculation of Western countries. Lavrov stressed that the current situation has exacerbated the problem, with Western sanctions being one of the main reasons for disruptions in food supplies, which exacerbated the crisis.
Source: TASS