"There is no ban on the import of milk and dairy products," Pankretic said at a news conference which he together with European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, held in Zagreb on the margins of a two-day international conference on "Agriculture and Enlargement".
A temporary ban on the import of milk and dairy products was announced on Thursday by Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec after the negotiations with leaders of disgruntled farmers who staged protests over the situation in agriculture.
Closing borders or imposing bans would not be adjusted to Croatia's commitments and the World Trade Organisation usually interprets such moves as something which undermines market competition, Commissioner Fischer Boel told the press.
Pankretic said that last week the government had drawn up a bill on subsidies to the agricultural sector, which is brought into line with the relevant EU legislation, and expressed hope that the national parliament would discuss the bill next week.
Fischer Boel said that it was crucial to change a farming subsidy system, explaining that the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced a new system of subsidies which is not tied to amounts of produce.
She said that problems in the dairy sector were not Croatian or European problems but they were caused with the global drop in prices.
She said that milk purchase prices in Croatia were twice as high as those in the EU given that production prices in the European bloc were lower.