EU prepares emergency curbs on grain imports from Ukraine

Brussels is preparing emergency curbs on Ukrainian grain imports to five member states close to the war-torn country, bowing to pressure from Poland and Hungary after they took unilateral action to pacify local farmers.

According to the Financial Times, the steps under discussion would ban grain import to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, as well as to Bulgaria, except for re-export to other EU member states or parts of the world.

The European Commission announced the day before they would take “preventive measures” regarding Ukrainian agricultural products but did not specify the steps.

The European Commission said it will only take action if governments drop their current measures, which they have yet to agree to do. It will do so by availing of a rarely used power, contained in the measure that liberalised trade with Ukraine, and limit the new safeguards to only a few member states rather than the whole bloc.

These countries will also receive 100 million euros from EU funds to compensate farmers for losses.

Much of the Ukrainian grain entering the bloc remained in its neighbouring countries and reduced prices locally. The EU wants to extend the wartime trade regime with Ukraine when it expires, but the revised version will have stronger provisions that allow the EU to take measures to “safeguard” its own market more rapidly in future

Brussels will organise convoys of trucks, trains and barges to transport the grain to ports where it can be shipped to countries in need. It would also increase the capacity of the river Danube.

Many commercial traders have refuse to pay for this transport because it is more expensive than traditional seaborne trade across the Black Sea.

It remains unclear how this would be financed and organised. According to a European official, Spain tried to subsidise a train to transport grain across the continent but it was much cheaper to import grain from Latin America.

Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia have also banned the import of Ukrainian agricultural products recently, while calls for similar measures in Romania (Ukr) are growing due to the harm caused to local farmers by lower prices for Ukrainian products.

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