diff --git a/pandoc.cabal b/pandoc.cabal
index 25ce935a4..9b0ee6fb2 100644
--- a/pandoc.cabal
+++ b/pandoc.cabal
@@ -205,6 +205,7 @@ extra-source-files:
                  test/command/B.txt
                  test/command/C.txt
                  test/command/D.txt
+                 test/command/01.csv
                  test/command/defaults1.yaml
                  test/command/defaults2.yaml
                  test/command/3533-rst-csv-tables.csv
diff --git a/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/RST.hs b/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/RST.hs
index 7c25be486..25682a500 100644
--- a/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/RST.hs
+++ b/src/Text/Pandoc/Readers/RST.hs
@@ -879,7 +879,12 @@ csvTableDirective top fields rawcsv = do
        Left e  ->
          throwError $ PandocParsecError "csv table" e
        Right rawrows -> do
-         let parseCell = parseFromString' (plain <|> return mempty)
+         let singleParaToPlain bs =
+               case B.toList bs of
+                 [Para ils] -> B.fromList [Plain ils]
+                 _          -> bs
+         let parseCell t = singleParaToPlain
+                <$> parseFromString' parseBlocks (t <> "\n\n")
          let parseRow = mapM parseCell
          rows <- mapM parseRow rawrows
          let (headerRow,bodyRows,numOfCols) =
diff --git a/test/command/01.csv b/test/command/01.csv
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..76a84398d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/command/01.csv
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+"Column1";"Column2"
+"Data1";"- data1
+
+- data2"
diff --git a/test/command/6549.md b/test/command/6549.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e41f4b76a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/command/6549.md
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+```
+% pandoc -f rst
+.. csv-table:: Test table
+   :file: command/01.csv
+   :delim: ;
+   :header-rows: 1
+^D
+<table>
+<caption>Test table</caption>
+<thead>
+<tr class="header">
+<th>Column1</th>
+<th>Column2</th>
+</tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr class="odd">
+<td>Data1</td>
+<td><ul>
+<li>data1</li>
+<li>data2</li>
+</ul></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+```