Kyiv welcomes measure
EU limits agricultural imports from Ukraine
05/03/2023 00:03
Because of the Russian war of aggression, Ukraine can export fewer agricultural products by sea. Instead, the country uses the land route through the EU. In neighboring countries, however, this means full silos and falling producer prices. Now the EU Commission is reacting.
In the dispute over cheap grain from Ukraine, the EU Commission has restricted the import of four Ukrainian products after pressure from several EU countries. The EU Commission announced that wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflowers may no longer be traded freely in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia until June 5. However, it is still possible that the products would be brought to other EU countries by the countries concerned.
The background to the conflict is, among other things, that farmers in countries particularly affected by imports had complained about the competition. In response, countries such as Poland and Hungary had independently restricted the import of certain goods. The EU Commission announced that these national measures would now be lifted. Because of the war, Ukraine’s important export routes across the Black Sea were blocked for a long time. The attacked country is now much more dependent on bringing goods to the world market by train, truck or barge.
The first details of the agreement were already known on Friday. Ukraine welcomed the agreement reached over the weekend. Blocking Ukrainian imports would not only harm Ukraine but also cause great suffering to the Middle East and Africa, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Stockholm on Saturday.
The CDU agricultural politician Norbert Lins, on the other hand, criticized parts of the agreement. “The problem will not be solved, it will only be pushed further within the EU,” said the chairman of the EU Parliament’s Agriculture Committee. He described the protective measures decided by the Commission as a sham solution. “It will only be a few days before the riparian states of the riparian states will complain about grains in their markets,” he said. It must be considered, for example, how specially developed trade routes between Ukraine and the EU could be raised to the next level.