The EU has temporarily agreed on duty-free trade for Ukraine with the option of restrictions on agricultural products
Kyiv • UNN
The EU has temporarily agreed to duty-free trade for Ukraine until June 2025, but with the possibility of imposing restrictions on sensitive agricultural products such as poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, cereals, corn, and honey if imports exceed the average level from July 2021 to December 2023.
Brussels has reached an agreement on duty-free trade and possible quotas for agricultural products from Ukraine with greater protection for EU farmers. Radio Liberty , Reutersand UNN report on the import restrictions for Ukrainians .
Details
EU ambassadors and the European Parliament have agreed on restrictions on imports of Ukrainian food, which some EU members say have destabilized the bloc's agricultural markets. An EU diplomat told Reuters that today lawmakers in Brussels agreed on the formula, which had been discussed since January.
At that time, the European Commission proposed to extend duty-free access for Ukraine until June 2025, but with a so-called emergency brake for poultry, eggs, and sugar, to apply tariffs if imports exceeded the average level of 2022 and 2023.
Since then, oats, corn, cereals, and honey have been added, with the average also to be calculated including the second half of 2021. In the year before Russia invaded Ukraine, imports were much lower due to the application of duties.
According to Radio Liberty, today in Brussels, the EU temporarily suspended duties and quotas for Ukraine until June 2025, but reserved the right to impose restrictions if the volume of products from Ukraine in certain categories exceeds the average for the period from July 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023.
External restrictions may be applied to particularly sensitive agricultural products, such as poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, cereals, corn, and honey.
Recall
EU leaders argued for weeks about restricting duty-free access for Ukrainian products as farmers protested cheap imports and some in Poland blocked the border with Ukraine and spilled Ukrainian grain directly onto railroad tracks.
EU lawmakers and Belgium, which holds the EU presidency for six months, said they had reached an agreement on the restrictions. However, this will still require the approval of other EU members and the European Parliament.
