EU authorities agree to limit trade benefits for Ukraine

The European Parliament and the European Council have agreed on the conditions for the extension of the liberalized trade regime for Ukraine, providing for strengthened protective measures for European farmers, the press service of the European Parliament reports.

The agreement will allow the suspension of duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU until June 2025.

"These unilateral trade liberalisation measures will help stabilise the Ukrainian economy and facilitate the country’s gradual integration into the EU’s internal market," the report reads.

The European Parliament still has to vote for this decision during the plenary session in April, after which the European Council will approve the changes to the rules of trade with Ukraine.

The agreement also provides for the possibility to limit the export of certain categories of goods from Ukraine to the EU.

"Should there be significant disruption to the EU market or the markets of one or more EU countries due to Ukrainian imports, for instance wheat, the regulation ensures that the Commission can take swift action and impose any measures it deems necessary," the message says.

In addition, as part of enhanced safeguards to protect EU farmers, the trade liberalization regime may be suspended on an emergency basis for particularly sensitive agricultural products, namely poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, groats, maize and honey.

"Negotiators agreed to extend the reference period used as a base for triggering this automatic safeguard, meaning that if imports of these products surpass the average of import volumes recorded in the second half of 2021, and all of 2022 and 2023, tariffs would be re-imposed," the message reads.

The European Commission also undertakes to strengthen the monitoring of grain imports, in particular wheat.

At the same time, European legislators approved the commitment of the European Commission to discuss the permanent liberalization of tariffs with Ukraine within the framework of the revision process of the Association Agreement, as soon as the legislative procedure on temporary liberalization is completed, and to ensure the active participation of the European Parliament in this process.

The current preferential regime with Ukraine expires on June 5, 2024. The new rules should enter into force immediately after the end of this period.

At the end of January, the European Commission proposed to extend the suspension of import quotas and customs duties for Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, while at the same time including safeguards for agricultural products, which was requested by several EU countries.

But this proposal did not satisfy farmers in the EU countries bordering Ukraine, who started protest actions – in particular, in Poland.

On March 15, the European Commission published proposals that would allow members of the European Union to relax environmental regulations for farmers who have been protesting for the past few months due to difficult economic conditions.