March 29. 2024. 10:17

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Commissioner wants to extend selective EU ban on Ukraine’s agri commodities


The temporary trade restrictions on four agricultural products from Ukraine to five European ‘frontline’ countries need to be prolonged at least to October, according to the EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.

The exceptional and temporary preventive measures, due to expire on 5 June, concern wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seed originating in Ukraine.

These agriculture commodities cannot currently circulate in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia unless for transit to other EU or non-EU countries as part of a political package deal agreed upon by the EU executive and the five ‘frontline’ countries neighbouring Ukraine in early May.

The deal was necessary after temporary trade liberalisation meant to help Ukraine export agricultural commodities led to an influx of goods in Eastern Europe, pushing prices down and local farmers to the edge, and leading some of these countries to enforce unilateral bans on all Ukrainian agriculture imports.

As the EU regional ban expires next Monday (5 June), Wojciechowski expressed his view that it should be extended, “best until the end of the year but minimum to the end of October this year”.

According to him, not prolonging the safeguard measures could create problems during the harvest for the five member states already hit by the influx of Ukrainian goods as farmers will not empty their storages before the harvest.

“[If we don’t maintain restrictions] there will be no effect on farmers and the problem will be the same, maybe higher than in the past,” the Commissioner said, adding that in 2024, the export pressure to the ‘frontline’ countries should decrease as Ukraine’s harvest for 2023 is expected to be 40% less than the year before.

“[The] liberalisation of trade was the European Union’s support for Ukraine but the cost of the support was paid mainly by the farmers in these five member states,” Wojciechowski said on Tuesday (30 May) after the monthly gathering of EU-27 agricultural ministers.

According to the Commission figures, the value of agri-trade imports from Ukraine to the five neighbouring countries increased by more than €5 billion after the introduction of the trade liberalisation regime with Ukraine.

However, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskiy, who had been invited to the meeting with his European counterparts, called on the EU countries to scrap the regional trade restrictions.

“We need to take very seriously the concerns voiced by the Ukrainian side,” commented Wojciechowski.

At the same time, he presented a situation in which the ‘frontline’ EU countries could again adopt unilateral bans in the future, which would not be “advantageous either to the Ukrainian farmers or to the European Union.”

Wojciechowski also pointed out that he was presenting his personal position and that he cannot make “any binding declarations on the extension of the ban” since “there is nothing yet decided by the Commission”.

Lifting the unilateral bans is also a precondition for these countries to receive a €100 million EU support package meant to alleviate pressure on their farmers.

While Romania had only threatened to adopt a national ban without actually putting it in place, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria removed their unilateral measures after the political deal with the Commission.

Only Hungary still has them in force, and this is delaying not only the disbursement of the aid package but also a decision on the prolongation of the trade restrictions, an EU source told EURACTIV.

Read more with EURACTIV

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