EU may limit Ukraine’s agricultural imports to five neighboring countries after ‘economic visa-free regime’ is extended

The EU may limit Ukraine’s agricultural imports to five neighboring countries after the extension of the “economic visa-free regime”.

This was announced today in Brussels during a press conference following the EU Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs (Trade) by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis.

“As for Ukraine, after the adoption of a new package of autonomous trade measures and their extension for another year, we have a legal basis for a possible extension of exceptional safeguard measures (against Ukrainian agricultural imports – ed.), because the existing exceptional safeguard measures provided for in the previous autonomous regulatory rules expire on June 5. Therefore, after this decision to extend (autonomous trade measures – ed.), we have signaled the readiness of the European Commission to extend (exceptional trade restrictions – ed.) for the five countries concerned,” Dombrovskis emphasized.

He noted that the European Commission continues to discuss this topic with the interested member states, as well as with Ukraine. If the discussion results in a decision to extend the EU’s exceptional safeguard measures against Ukrainian agricultural imports beyond June 5, the parties will determine the specific dates of such temporary restrictions.

At the same time, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission thanked the member states for extending tariff-free imports of Ukrainian goods to the EU, as such autonomous trade measures applied throughout the year have become a significant basis for the EU’s support of Ukraine’s economy through access to the European market.

As reported, the EU Council approved on Thursday a regulation extending the duty-free trade regime between the EU and Ukraine, which extends the suspension of all customs duties, quotas and trade remedies on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, until June 2024. These regulatory rules come into force on June 6 this year.

At the same time, the blockade of the Black Sea ports by the Russian Federation led to a sharp increase in the volume of transportation of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural goods by land, through “solidarity corridors” on the borders with neighboring countries, which significantly affected the domestic market of these countries and caused protests from local farmers.

On April 28, the European Commission agreed with four of Ukraine’s neighboring countries – Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – on a package of measures to be implemented after the countries canceled their unilateral actions against agricultural imports from Ukraine. This package restricts imports of four key products from Ukraine – wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds – to the territory of these countries, as well as Romania, although it preserves the possibility of transit of such goods to other EU countries and the world market.

These measures also include direct assistance include direct assistance for farmers in the mentioned five countries from the so-called EU Agricultural Reserve Fund in the amount of EUR 100 million.

According to the European Commission, the only country that has not yet lifted its unilateral measures against Ukrainian agricultural imports is Hungary, but this does not allow the European Commission to move forward with the implementation of the already mentioned exceptional safeguard measures agreed at the EU level.

At the same time, in May, a group of EU countries sent a letter to the European Commission protesting against providing assistance from the EU’s reserve fund to member states that resort to blackmail over the issue of Ukrainian grain exports to other EU countries and the world market.

Tags: Slovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, EU, Poland, Hungary