The European Commission will propose changes to EU trade legislation that will allow restrictions on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products to neighboring countries
The Financial Times reported this information.
Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis stated that a proposal is expected this week, which is likely to include “safeguards for specific countries”.
This means that Brussels will be able to block imports if the market of any country is “flooded”.
“We will look for ways to provide additional guarantees to Poland and other EU member states, and one way to do this is to introduce protective measures for each country”, said Dombrovskis.
According to him, neighboring countries feel the greatest impact from Ukrainian agricultural products, while there are no significant obstacles for the EU market. Poland and Hungary unilaterally banned the import of Ukrainian products in April 2023.
This happened against the backdrop of farmer protests, claiming that cheap exports from Ukraine allegedly led to a surplus of grain on the domestic market. The unilateral ban was contrary to EU general trade law. It is known that after the start of the full-scale war, the European Union abolished all tariffs and quotas for the transit of Ukrainian grain.
Farmers from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia lost hundreds of millions of euros due to the influx of Ukrainian grain into their markets. Then countries began to ban the import of Ukrainian grain, and the European Commission allocated funds to European farmers.
Earlier, it was reported that Poland was refused by the European Commission in its request to reinstate tariff quotas for some Ukrainian products. The Minister of Agriculture of Poland, Leszek Sekersky, confirmed that the European Commission is preparing a draft resolution on the extension of duty-free trade with Ukraine until June 2025.
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