Poland is negotiating with Ukraine to introduce licenses not only for grain imports

Poland is negotiating with Ukraine on the introduction of licenses for the import of agricultural products. This is reported by RMF FM.

Poland is negotiating with Ukraine on the introduction of import licenses for Ukrainian grain, fruits, vegetables, poultry, eggs and sugar. The European Commission proposed such a solution last year, but now the Polish authorities intend to introduce a new measure, namely, verification of the reliability of Ukrainian licenses.

Brussels is ready to agree to it, provided that the Polish-Ukrainian dispute is resolved, the publication writes.

However, so far, as RMF FM has learned, Ukraine is in no hurry to compromise on the issue of licenses. Polish diplomats suspect that Kyiv may be waiting for an EU regulation to extend duty-free trade.

Confidence that the European Commission will not abandon duty-free imports from Ukraine will allow Kyiv to take a better position in negotiations with Warsaw. As soon as the licenses are introduced, Poland will lift the current embargo on Ukrainian imports.

“If this situation continues, the EC will initiate a procedure for violating EU law,” the EU diplomat said.

More favorable solutions are also being prepared in the regulation to be adopted by Brussels next week. This concerns the new provision on strengthening the safeguard clause. Until now, the emergency brake on excessive imports from Ukraine could only be activated if problems arose across the entire EU market. The new proposal provides for its activation even in the event of regional disruptions.

In such a situation, in two weeks’ time, the EC could impose temporary trade restrictions on Ukraine for a period of four months. Only then would the EC conduct an in-depth analysis.

Earlier, the Polish European Commissioner wrote a letter to the EC asking it to protect the market from agricultural imports from Ukraine.

Tags: grain, Poland, sugar, vegetables, restrictions, eggs, fruits