The European Commission refused to set quotas on “sensitive” goods from Ukraine at Poland’s request

The European Commission is preparing a draft resolution that will extend duty-free trade with Ukraine until June 2025. This is happening despite the protests of Ukraine’s neighbors. This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture of Poland Czesław Siekierski.

“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 threats to their grain, poultry, fruit, and sugar markets. These countries say, among other things, that tariff quotas, which are currently suspended under EU rules, should 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,” the minister said.

According to him, he is going to meet with European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in the near future.

The ministry will 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.”

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

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

“We will work on developing the port infrastructure. Unfortunately, there have been few significant activities in this area in the past. Therefore, to streamline and improve the transit of agricultural raw materials from Ukraine, we will need to cooperate with other ministries to develop port, railroad, and warehouse infrastructure,” the minister said.

Poland expects that at least part of these measures will be financed by the European Union.

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