At its meeting on April 23, the European Parliament approved the extension of the agreement on duty-free trade with Ukraine, protecting EU farmers at the same time.
This is reported on the institutionʼs website.
MEPs supported the extension of the suspension of import duties and quotas for Ukrainian agricultural products for another year, until June 5, 2025, with safeguards to protect the interests of European farmers.
428 parliamentarians supported the decision, 131 were against it, and another 44 abstained.
According to the resolution, the European Commission can take quick measures if, due to the import of certain products from Ukraine, significant violations occur on the EU market or the markets of one or more EU member states.
In particular, the possibility of emergency braking is foreseen for particularly sensitive agricultural products, namely poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, cereals, corn and honey. If imports of these goods exceed the average import volumes recorded in the second half of 2021 and for all of 2022 and 2023, the tariffs may be reimposed.
The EU Council must now officially approve the new rules. The current trade measures expire on June 5, 2024, and the new rules should take effect immediately.
As Reuters points out, due to the new restrictions, Ukraine will earn €331 million less from exports to the EU than in 2023, compared to €240 million in the initial proposal of the European Commission.
- After the start of a full-scale war, the European Union canceled all tariffs and quotas for the transit of Ukrainian grain. This did not suit farmers from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia. These countries began to ban the import of Ukrainian grain, and the European Commission allocated funds to European farmers.
- In March, Ukraine declared that it was ready to accept restrictions on its trade with the EU in order to resolve the dispute with Poland. Kyiv called on the bloc to ban imports of Russian agricultural products, which still flow through Belarus and the Baltic states.
- On April 8, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU previously agreed on the continuation of duty-free trade with Ukraine with greater guarantees for European farmers.