The European Commission decided on Thursday, May 22, to temporarily restore quotas for Ukrainian agricultural imports that were lifted after the start of Russiaʼs full-scale invasion. These agreements expire on June 6, when the restrictions will come into effect again.
Bloomberg reports this, citing a European Commission official.
No EU member state opposed the decision. Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Lithuania abstained from the vote.
The permitted export volumes by the end of 2025 will be 7/12 of the usual annual volumes, as the restrictions will only come into effect in June.
The return of quotas is temporary, the EU is currently reviewing the provisions "On the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with Ukraine".
What preceded
The FT previously reported on the possible return of tariffs on Ukrainian imports. The publication noted that the Ukrainian government estimates that a return to pre-war trading conditions would reduce its revenues by about €3.5 billion per year.
The decision to reinstate tariffs on Ukrainian imports came after Poland led efforts to protect the blocʼs farmers, the FT writes, citing diplomats.
In 2022, the duty-free regime extended to cheap Ukrainian poultry, wheat and sugar, much of which passed through EU countries to Africa and Asia. But farmers and politicians in Poland, France and elsewhere soon accused Ukrainian exports of undercutting their domestic prices.
This was particularly worrying for the Poles. They had unilaterally banned the import of Ukrainian grain, thereby violating EU rules. On the eve of the country’s presidential election, Warsaw asked the Commission to postpone trade talks with Kyiv to minimize the chances of victory for the opposition candidate from the nationalist opposition Karol Nawrocki, diplomats told the FT.
The head of the European Parliamentʼs trade committee Bernd Lange said it would take at least until October this year to "find a solution".
Ukraine currently has a quota under which it can sell a certain amount of goods to the EU duty-free during the year. Two EU diplomats told the Financial Times that there is a transitional measure, where they propose to divide this annual norm into 12 parts — one for each month. This means that they will not be allowed to sell a lot at once, but will have to be distributed evenly throughout the year. This is how they want to limit imports from Ukraine while the parties agree on new trade rules.
This will affect the sales of corn, sugar, honey, and chicken the most:
- instead of 4.7 million tons of corn per year, only 650 thousand tons will be sold;
- instead of 57 thousand tons of chicken — 40 thousand tons;
- instead of 109 thousand tons of sugar — 40.7 thousand tons.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.