European Commission is willing to restrict agricultural exports from Ukraine to certain countries

This week, the European Commission will introduce changes to trade legislation that will allow it to impose restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products to Ukraine’s neighboring countries. This was stated in a commentary to the Financial Times by European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis.

According to him, the proposal is due this week and is likely to include “country-specific safeguard measures” that will allow Brussels to block imports if a particular country’s market is overcrowded.

“We will be looking at how we can provide additional guarantees to Poland and other member states, and one of the ways to do that is to introduce country-specific safeguards,” he said.

Dombrovskis noted that the distribution of Ukrainian agricultural exports is uneven. The problems are experienced primarily by the closest neighboring countries, while this does not pose significant obstacles to the EU market as a whole.

Dombrovskis said that the proposal would cover the year until June 2025. It must be approved by the European Parliament and the majority of EU member states.

In addition, EU representatives said on condition of anonymity that the possibility of introducing quotas on poultry, sugar and eggs from Ukraine is currently being considered, but no decision has been made yet.

Tags: agricultural products, Hungary, Slovakia, restrictions, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, EU, Poland