Ukraine is ready to accept EU restrictions to unblock the border

Ukraine is ready to accept new restrictions on trade with the European Union to defuse a bitter political dispute with Poland, but also calls on the bloc to ban imports of Russian grain.

This was stated by Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine, in a commentary to the Financial Times.

“Perhaps for the transition period… this kind of managed approach to trade flows between Ukraine and the EU is what we all need,” Kachka said.

He added that it is not Ukraine that creates problems for Polish farmers on the wheat market, but Russia.

Kachka said that Kyiv supports the new measures proposed by Brussels to restrict imports of eggs, poultry and sugar from June, as well as allowing some countries to close their markets to Ukrainian grain, except for further transit to other countries.

He acknowledged that how fast Ukrainian sugar exports have grown “might have scared everybody.”

Kyiv has also recently agreed to reroute corn exports to Italy and Spain through the Black Sea rather than by way of neighboring countries to ease tensions.

“We voluntarily stopped exporting corn to all five neighboring EU member states. Despite this, we have exported another new record volume of 15 million tons of corn in calendar year 2023. Therefore, we are in great demand in other countries. Ukraine has filled the gaps in EU production,” said Kachka.

Tags: Ukraine, EU, restrictions