BRUSSELS — 5 EU international locations have struck a take care of the European Fee on shifting tens of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain out of the area after virtually two weeks of intensive negotiations, EU commerce chief Valdis Dombrovskis mentioned Friday.
“I’m glad to announce that we’ve got reached a political settlement regarding Ukrainian agrifood imports within the EU. We’ve agreed with the 5 neighboring EU member states and Ukraine on how we’ll deal with the state of affairs,” Dombrovskis mentioned.
Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria restricted imports of Ukrainian produce earlier this month following protests by farmers unable to promote their crops resulting from a provide glut.
As beforehand introduced, the European Fee will put ahead emergency safeguard measures for wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, Dombrovskis mentioned, including that investigations into different merchandise might comply with.
He didn’t present extra particulars on what the emergency measures entail, however EU diplomats say that the imports of these merchandise into these 5 international locations might be blocked except for transit into different EU or third international locations.
The EU can even help the international locations with some €100 million.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the deal, arguing that it “preserves each Ukraine’s exports capability so it continues feeding the world, and our farmers’ livelihoods.”
Poland earlier heralded the deal.
“We have now simply now finalized agreements with the European Union concerning the ban on the import of those agricultural merchandise, which above all led to destabilization within the Polish market,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki mentioned.
Whereas Romania had not imposed its personal restrictions, it joined the opposite 4 international locations in calling for the EU govt to widen its proposal for non permanent “preventative measures”.
A lot for solidarity
The 5 had argued that the so-called “solidarity lanes” — arrange by the EU to assist shift crops diverted from Ukraine’s conventional Black Sea export route by Russia’s invasion final yr — had flooded their markets with farm produce.
However the import crackdown sparked outrage amongst different EU international locations, who mentioned that this each undermined the bloc’s single market and broke solidarity with Kyiv, which Europe is backing in its struggle towards Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warfare of aggression.
The information was unlikely to be welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had warned that import restrictions violate a commerce deal between the 2 companions earlier within the day.
“We mentioned the ban on the import of Ukrainian agricultural merchandise by a number of neighboring states,” he mentioned following a cellphone name with European Council President Charles Michel. “I expressed deep concern about such selections and emphasised that these steps are a gross violation of the Affiliation Settlement and the founding treaties of the EU.”
In an identical vein, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna urged the bloc to droop commerce protection measures.
“The move of Ukrainian agro-export is a matter of survival for the Ukrainian financial system, closely impacted by the full-scale Russian warfare of aggression,” Stefanishyna mentioned. “So, our widespread precedence ought to be an extension of the suspension of import duties, quotas, and commerce protection measures on Ukrainian exports to the European Union.”
Information of an settlement got here hours after EU ambassadors backed the proposed extension of Ukraine’s tariff-free entry to the bloc’s single market.
The present scheme runs out in early June and, topic to formal approval, could be prolonged by one other yr. The choice had been postponed due to the continued negotiations on clearing the provision glut of Ukrainian grain.
Brussels had suspended all import duties on Ukrainian items for one yr to assist Kyiv’s war-ravaged financial system final June, lifting all import duties on prime of tariff reductions which might be already cemented within the Affiliation Settlement between the EU and Ukraine. The remaining tariffs have been faraway from industrial merchandise, vegetables and fruit and different agricultural merchandise.
The tariff guidelines are nonetheless topic to formal approval by the European Parliament and EU international locations at a later stage.
