France also begins to lobby for restrictions on agricultural imports from Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron has also begun to advocate for certain safeguards against Ukrainian imports for those products that are particularly important to the interests of French farmers. This is stated in the Politico article.

The ongoing violent protests of French farmers are pushing the “heavyweights” in Macron’s team to blame Brussels for some of the problems of farmers.

Macron plans to raise some of these issues at the upcoming EU summit on February 1, namely, “environmental” requirements for farmers and agricultural imports from Ukraine, as well as the future trade agreement with Latin America, which is in the final stages of preparation.

During his visit to Sweden, the French president confirmed that he would ask for “some very specific things” for the interests of French farmers.

These measures include an exception to the EU requirement for farmers to leave part of their land unoccupied to maintain biodiversity, as well as restrictions on imports of poultry and grain from Ukraine. Supporters of such restrictions are known to exist in several other EU countries, including Ukraine’s immediate neighbors.

On Wednesday, French Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesnault is to meet with Polish European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton and the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium to discuss these issues.

On Wednesday, the European Commission officially proposed to extend the suspension of import quotas and duties on Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year, while including safeguards for agricultural products, as demanded by several member states.

Tags: sugar, restrictions, Ukraine, export, grain, France