Compromise on Ukraine’s agricultural exports to the EU takes into account the introduction of tariffs on products from Russia

Part of the EU’s compromise decision to impose restrictions on imports of certain agricultural products from Ukraine was the introduction of export tariffs against Russian supplies of similar products.

This was announced in the Belgian city of Genk following an informal meeting of EU agriculture ministers by David Clarinval, Minister of the Middle Class, Self-Employment, Agriculture and Institutional Reform of the Belgian EU Presidency.

“On the one hand, we were able to introduce measures restricting the export of certain (Ukrainian – ed.) goods and extended the list of them. At the same time, we wanted to continue our solidarity with Ukraine and extend the mechanism that was put in place by the European Commission as an emergency measure (autonomous trade measures – ed.). We have to look at the bigger picture. At the same time, there was a significant increase in taxation (tariffication – ed.) for Russian imports that are not subject to our sanctions. This was part of a package, a compromise solution that was reached yesterday in the framework of trilateral negotiations,” the Belgian official emphasized.

He noted that the Belgian EU Presidency had worked hard to reach an agreement on the extension of autonomous trade measures for Ukraine. At the same time, it was quite difficult to reach an agreement between different interests, which, according to the Minister, “do not necessarily coincide”. In his opinion, the decision taken as a result of these negotiations between the European Commission, the EU Council and the European Parliament allows us to talk about achieving a “good balance.”

As reported by Ukrinform, on April 8, representatives of the EU member states (Coreper) confirmed the preliminary agreement reached earlier that day between the Belgian EU Presidency, the European Parliament and the European Commission to extend autonomous trade measures (suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU) until June 5, 2025.

At the same time, the EU decided to strengthen safeguard measures against Ukrainian exports of “sensitive” goods and limit them to the average trade volumes registered in the period from 2021 to 2023. These measures may be activated by one or more EU countries in response to the destabilization of their internal agricultural market as a result of excessive inflows of Ukrainian agricultural products.

Such exemptions from the autonomous trade measures regime may be applied to imports from Ukraine of a certain list of “sensitive” products, including poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, cereals and honey.

According to the European Commission, imports of Russian agricultural products to the EU in 2022-2023 amounted to about 2.5 million tons per year, including grain crops. These products were not on the list of goods subject to EU sanctions.

Recently, the European Commission has unveiled a proposal to introduce a restrictive tariff on imports of Russian and Belarusian grain in the amount of 95 euros per ton, which should reduce the competitiveness of these products in the EU market.

Such decisions must be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

Tags: grain, EU, agricultural products, restrictions, Ukraine