Poland is considering replacing the ban on agricultural products from Ukraine with licensing

The European Commission is preparing a draft resolution to extend the duty-free regime for exports from Ukraine until mid-2025. The Polish idea to restore quotas for agricultural products was rejected, and licensing is also being discussed. Polish Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Sekerski told Business Insider.

“The problem of the negative effects of imports from Ukraine is becoming more and more noticeable in Western Europe and concerns a wider range of goods, not just grain. France, Austria and Germany are talking about the threat to their grain, poultry, fruit and sugar markets. These countries claim, among other things, that tariff quotas, which are currently suspended under EU rules, need to be reinstated. Poland supports these demands, and we have asked the European Commission to reinstate tariff quotas on some sensitive products, but this was rejected by the European Commission,” he said.

The Ministry will also propose to insert a new protective mechanism into the European Commission’s resolution, which will provide for the application of regional restrictions “if the market problem affects not the entire European Union, but one country or region.”

Czeslaw Sekerski added that Poland is also considering the mechanism of licensing agricultural exports proposed by Ukraine. Such a decision, if supported by the European Commission, could be acceptable to Poland, the minister said.

According to him, there is political will in Poland to develop transit infrastructure for the export of Ukrainian products.

Tags: Ukraine, grain, EU, Poland, restrictions