At the same time, the European Commission proposes to create a “reinforced precautionary measure” to protect the interests of European farmers.
The European Commission proposed to extend the suspension of import quotas and duties for Ukrainian exports to the EU for another year. At the same time, security mechanisms for agricultural products will be used, this is requested by some EU countries. This was announced by EC President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, January 31.
According to him, the European Commission proposes to extend preferential trade terms for Ukraine with the suspension of import duties and quotas for another year to support Ukraine’s economy during the war. At the same time, the proposal includes an “enhanced protection mechanism” to protect the interests of European farmers.
“To this end, and due to the significant increase in imports of some agricultural products from Ukraine to the EU in 2022-2023, the updated autonomous trade measures contain an enhanced protection mechanism . This will allow a quick response in the event of visible distortions in the EU market or in the market of one of the member countries,” – explained von der Leyen.
For three types of products – chicken meat, eggs and sugar – an “emergency brake” mechanism is proposed to “stabilize imports at the level of the average import volume in 2022-2023.” This means that if these import volumes are exceeded, import tariffs will apply.
Based on the same proposal, the European Commission proposes to extend the suspension of duties on imports from Moldova for another year.
Now this proposal must be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
As you know, in May 2022, the Council of the EU for the first time decided to remove all duties and quotas on exports from Ukraine for one year to support the full-scale invasion of Russia. This regime was extended in 2023.
At the same time, due to farmers’ dissatisfaction, the EU introduced temporary restrictions on certain types of agricultural products for several months in 2023, and some countries, notably Poland, extended the it unilaterally even after canceling them at the EU level.
Source: korrespondent
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