The European Commission proposed to extend duty-free trade with Ukraine for a year, but with "protection" for farmers in the EU
Kyiv • UNN
The European Commission has proposed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, while proposing measures to protect sensitive EU agricultural products.
The European Commission today proposed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, while proposing measures to mitigate the possible impact on farmers in the EU, the European institution said on Wednesday, UNN reports.
Details
"Today, the European Commission proposed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, while strengthening the protection of sensitive EU agricultural products," the statement said.
As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen noted, "The EU continues to support Ukraine and Moldova.
Today, we are renewing special trade measures that are vital to supporting the economies of Ukraine and Moldova. At the same time, we propose safeguard measures to mitigate the impact of these measures on EU farmers
These Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs) are effective from June 2022. As indicated by the European Commission, this is done in accordance with the EU's obligations to support Ukraine "as long as it takes".
At the same time, the European Commission proposed measures to limit the import of agricultural products from Ukraine in the event of "failures" on the EU market.
"While the main objective of the ATMs is to support Ukraine, the measures are also mindful of EU farmers' and other stakeholders' sensitivities. To this end, and considering a significant increase in imports of some agricultural products from Ukraine to the EU in 2022 and 2023, the renewed ATMs contain a reinforced safeguard mechanism. This makes sure that quick remedial action can be taken in case of significant disruptions to the EU market, or to the markets of one or more Member States," the European Commission said in a statement.
As reported, for the "most sensitive products" - poultry meat, eggs and sugar - "an emergency brake is foreseen which would stabilise imports at the average import volumes in 2022 and 2023". "This means that if imports of these products were exceeding those volumes, tariffs would be reimposed to ensure that import volumes do not significantly exceed those of previous years," the European Commission said.
"The proposals will now be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The goal is to ensure a seamless transition from the current regime of ATMs to the new one, by the time the current regimes expires on 5 June 2024 for Ukraine and 24 July 2024 for Moldova," the European Commission said.