The 2014 agreement on the association of Ukraine with the EU already resulted in the liberalization of trade between the parties, consisting of the reduction of customs duties, quotas and other non-tariff restrictions, with the aim of supporting the Ukrainian economy.
In turn, on 1 January 2016, the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) between the EU and Ukraine entered into force, resulting in the elimination of most customs duties. levies, on the Ukrainian side as much as 99 percent, which means that there are levies on only a few goods.
In the trade of agricultural goods, only reduced duties remain on products such as: dairy products, eggs, sugar, animal oils and fats, as well as tariff quotas for wheat, sugars, poultry meat and pork, their size is increased annually and only if they are exceeded, the calculation of customs duties activated.
But these restrictions were also lifted from June 2, 2022 as a result of the annual tariff liberalization in trade contacts with Ukraine, which was the EU’s response to Russia’s aggression against this country and was supposed to be an additional form of aid for its economy.
There is a clause in this liberalization regulation that allows the EC itself or at the request of a Member State to reintroduce import restrictions if a product originating in Ukraine is “imported under conditions which cause serious difficulties for EU producers of similar or directly competing products”. “.
The silence of Brussels
It is just that in a situation where grain producers from Poland, but also other so-called frontline countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and even the Czech Republic) have informed the EC that such problems arise due to the excessive imports of wheat, maize and rapeseed from Ukraine. Unfortunately, there was no response from Commissioner Dombrovskis, responsible for EU trade policy.
Although, at the request of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, the EC has agreed to release two tranches of funds from the EU crisis reserve of tens of millions of euros each, which will be sent to the so-called first-line countries (including Poland, twice for around EUR 30 million), but as you can easily guess, these resources are disproportionate to the losses incurred by farmers due, on the one hand, to a marked decrease in prices compared to the autumn of the previous year, and, secondly, to the impossibility of selling grain due to the fact that the warehouses were filled with Ukrainian grain.
In this situation, the Polish government decided last Saturday to ban until June 30, 2023 the import of agricultural goods from Ukraine from as many as 18 commodity groups to our territory, as well as the transit of these products through our territory, because often only a transit declaration and the release took place in our country.
Today the Minister of Agriculture of Ukraine is coming from Ukraine to Poland and, perhaps in consultation with him, it will be possible to define the conditions that must be met by the transit of agricultural products from Ukraine through Poland, so that there will be certainty of their export to third countries, and then this transit can be unblocked.
EC response
After Poland announced the import blockade of agricultural products from Ukraine, both the EC spokeswoman and its president Ursula von der Leyen immediately spoke out to remind that trade policy is the exclusive competence of the EU and that Member States have no make decisions in this area. their own.
This is of course true, but in a situation where the EU institutions – in this case the Parliament and the Council – decide to fully liberalize trade with Ukraine and then remain silent when Member States signal serious problems in this regard, they must take radical measures. action to save certain segments of its economy (in this case agriculture).
Let’s hope that the EC and other EU institutions take into account the serious problems caused by the liberalization of trade with Ukraine, especially in agriculture in the so-called frontline countries and instead of threatening them with sanctions , they will work out such forms of support for them so that trade with Ukraine, which is fighting with Russia, can be resumed.
Source: wPolityce