The EU has agreed to extend the economic visa-free regime for goods from Ukraine

This was reported by Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denis Shmyhal.

“The European Parliament and the European Council have preliminarily agreed to extend the import of Ukrainian goods without duties and quotas until June 2025”, he noted.

According to the Prime Minister, this “economic visa-free” regime will allow Ukraine to maintain export dynamics, support Ukrainian producers, and strengthen the foundation for further integration into the EU Single Market.

It is expected that in April, the European Parliament will approve the agreed-upon arrangements. At the same time, the European Union will increase protection for “sensitive agricultural products”, strengthening precautionary measures included in the current resolution on trade liberalization.

This is necessary to account for negative impacts on the market of one or more member states, not just on the EU market as a whole. It is noted that the new automatic protection will be added to products such as:  poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, cereals, and honey.

Tariff quotas will be introduced if the import of such products exceeds the arithmetic average of imports in 2022 and 2023.

However, the European Commission will continue to monitor wheat and other cereal imports closely, and automatic protection will apply to four additional products (oats, corn, cereals, and honey). It is worth recalling that back in January, Poland received a refusal from the European Commission to its request to restore tariff quotas for certain Ukrainian products. Earlier, Poland had applied for discussions on the extension of duty-free trade with Ukraine at the next meeting of agriculture ministers of EU countries. The European Commission plans to expand duty-free trade despite protests from Warsaw, without limitations on imports.

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