Ukraine is ready to accept restrictions on its trade with the European Union in order to defuse a sharp political dispute with Poland. At the same time, Kyiv calls on the bloc to ban the import of Russian agricultural products, which still come through Belarus and the Baltic states.
Deputy Minister of Economy, trade representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said this in an interview with the Financial Times.
"Maybe for a transitional period this kind of... managed approach to trade flows between Ukraine and the EU is something that we all need. As for wheat, it is not Ukraine that is causing problems for Polish farmers, it is Russia," Kachka said.
According to him, Ukraine supports the new measures proposed by Brussels: restrictions on the import of eggs, poultry and sugar from June, as well as the permission for certain countries to close their markets for Ukrainian grain, except for further transit.
Ukraine recently agreed to reroute corn exports to Italy and Spain via the Black Sea instead of the land route through neighboring countries to ease tensions.
"We voluntarily stopped allowing the export of corn to all five neighbouring member states. Despite this, we exported another new record — 15mn tonnes of corn in the calendar year 2023. So we have big demand in other states. Ukraine filled gaps in EU production," Kachka said.
The deputy minister also accused Russia of inciting protests in Poland. He is sure that Moscow is behind the attack by Polish farmers last month on a train with Ukrainian grain.
Meanwhile, Poland is going to turn to the European Commission with a proposal to introduce a complete ban on the import of any agricultural and food products from Russia and Belarus.
Prohibition of Russian grain
Lithuanian farmers are also worried about the huge import of Russian grain. "These are impressive numbers: more than 3 million tons of Russian grain passed through Latvia and Lithuania together in 2023. In total, 12 million tons of Russian grain were imported to the EU market last year," said the head of the Association of Lithuanian Grain Producers Aušrys Macijauskas.
At the same time, the Latvian parliament banned the import of agricultural products from Russia and Belarus at least until July 2025.