Chicken, sugar, eggs, cereals… Ukrainian agricultural imports on the French market have been singled out by farmers since the start of the movement, and in particular by French cereal growers who want to see customs duties reinstated on Ukrainian cereals. Since May 2022, customs duties have been suspended in European Union countries, to help Ukraine in its war against Russia.
At a press conference following a summit in Brussels, President Emmanuel Macron affirmed that imports of Ukrainian cereals will be affected by a “reinforced safeguard mechanism” at the European level, thus limiting the impact of imports of products Ukrainian agricultural sectors and allowing “intervention” in the event of destabilization of prices.
“We cannot enter into a logic of market disorganization”
For the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Marc Fesneau, guest of La Grande interview Europe 1-CNews, “cereals must leave Ukraine, not to go to us, but to go elsewhere”. “Ukraine is an agricultural exporting power. It must be able to continue,” said the minister, judging that Vladimir Putin’s maneuvers over the past two years have “deregulated the markets.”
“Blocking the Black Sea, blocking solidarity corridors… All this was done to deregulate the market, to disrupt the internal market and to prevent Ukraine from entering foreign markets outside the European Union” , indicated Marc Fesneau, specifying that this had “disorganized the markets too much”. “I had several contacts with my Ukrainian counterpart, I told him that we could not enter into a logic of market disorganization, otherwise the measures we are taking for Ukraine will turn against Ukraine,” he said.
On Thursday, the European Union reached an agreement on the payment of new financial aid to Ukraine of 50 billion euros until 2027.