The European Union has reached a provisional agreement to renew the suspension of duties and quotas on food imports from Ukraine for another year, until June 2025.
In January, the European Commission proposed extending the suspension of import duties and quotas on all imports from Ukraine to the EU for another year.
This included an “emergency brake” to protect poultry, eggs, sugar if imports from Ukraine reached specific thresholds.
However, negotiators from the EU Council and Parliament have decided to “beef up” the “safeguard mechanism” to protect EU farmers by also proposing limits imports of oats, maize, groats and honey from Ukraine.
The EU Council said that this will “take into account any adverse impact on the market of one or several member states, rather than just on the EU market as a whole, as is the case now”.
The new automatic safeguard mechanism would oblige the EU Commission to reintroduce tariff-rate quotas if imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, maize, groats and honey exceed the average quantities imported in 2022 and 2023.
The commission has also committed to enhanced monitoring of imports of wheat and other cereals and use of the tools at its disposal in the event of market disruptions
The proposal also seeks to shorten the time period for the activation of the automatic safeguard from 21 to 14 days.
Ukraine
The EU said that the renewal reaffirms its “unwavering political and economic support for Ukraine, after two years of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression”.
The autonomous trade measures (ATMs) will allow Ukraine to continue generating its own income from trade flows with the EU.
The renewed regulation would apply from June 6, 2024 until June 5, 2025.
The European Parliament and the EU Council will now need to approve the provisional agreement.
The parliament’s position is expected to be adopted at one of the April plenary (full) sessions.
Once the EU Council adopts the regulations, it is anticipated it will enter into force on June 6.
Imports
A number of organisations representing food producers in the EU previously stated that the proposed renewal of trade arrangements between the EU and Ukraine will “jeopardise” several food sectors in the bloc.
The groups, including Copa Cogeca, the umbrella group of EU farmer organisations, said that, if the commission’s plan to renew the ATMs is not amended, the EU’s poultry, egg, sugar, grain, and honey sectors will be impacted.
Imports of grain from Ukraine have been the subject of protests and blockades by farmers in Poland in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s Minister for Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov said that cargo was “damaged” in several incidents at Polish railway stations with protestors spilling grain onto the train tracks.
Rapeseed in three trucks, which was in transit through Poland to Germany, was also damaged, according to the minister.
Kubrakov said that Ukraine is “fulfilling its obligations” in accordance with the agreements with the Polish government, and that “no grain, corn, or rapeseed” remains in Poland.
He said that about 5% of all agricultural exports from Ukraine, or 0.37 million tonnes, transited through Poland in January.
At the same time, in 2022 this figure stood at 1 million tonnes, he said.
Up to 90% of Ukrainian exports go through a corridor in the Black Sea, according to the minister who added that the world “depends on Ukrainian grain, especially in Africa and Asia”.