Hungarian and Polish farmers staged strikes on the borders with Ukraine. They demand to cancel the duty-free export of Ukrainian products, which the European Commission allowed for another year.
The Hungarian publication VG and the Polish Gazeta write about it.
Agrarians in Hungary are blocking the crossing point "Zakhon — Chop", in Poland — "Medyka — Szegyni", "Grebenne — Rava-Ruska" and "Dorogusk — Jagodin". The latter plan to protest for a month, they brought agricultural machinery to the border.
The Poles are also going to prevent the transshipment of Ukrainian agricultural goods from rail to road transport at the Khrubeshuv — Volodymyr-Volynsky checkpoint, the State Customs Service reported.
At the same time, Polish farmers are blocking roads throughout the country. Tractors drive out into the street.
Farmers claim that Ukrainian products do not meet EU standards, most of them contain GMOs, and they are cheap, so local producers may go bankrupt.
- On January 31, the European Commission officially proposed to extend for a year, until mid-2025, the duty-free regime for exports from Ukraine. However, it is not as liberal as in the previous two years and takes into account the peculiarities of EU farmers. The new autonomous trade measures actually provide for the introduction of quotas for the most sensitive products — poultry, eggs and sugar. If the import of these products exceeds the average annual import volumes for 2022 and 2023, duties will be imposed on them. The proposal of the European Commission should be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
- Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary demanded that the European Union introduce import duties on grain from Ukraine. The European Commission refused them, but spoke of plans to introduce additional guarantees to limit the export of Ukrainian food. Ukraine, for its part, has changed the rules for exporting agricultural products to the above-mentioned five EU countries. For violations, entrepreneurs will be deprived of verification for six months. However, this does not suit the neighbors either.