The European Parliament voted on April 23 to extend duty-free trade with Ukraine, but introduced new restrictions on the level of imports.
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If import levels of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, cereals, corn and honey exceed the average import volume recorded in the second half of 2021 and throughout 2022 and 2023, restrictions will be imposed immediately.
Such protective measures are aimed at protecting EU farmers.
What was accepted
In cases where problems arise in the market of the EU or one or more member countries due to excessive imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, for example, wheat, the European Commission will take “quick steps and apply measures that it deems necessary.”
To protect the European market from competition from some “sensitive” agricultural products from Ukraine, we are talking about poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, cereals, corn and honey, the European Parliament considers it appropriate to apply the “automatic emergency braking mechanism” proposed by the European Commission.
If imports of the mentioned agricultural products exceed the average import volumes recorded in the second half of 2021 and during 2022 and 2023, tariffs and duties on them may be re-introduced. In addition, the European Parliament recalled the “firm commitments” of the European Commission “to take appropriate measures if there is a sharp increase in imports of Ukrainian wheat.” MEPs also believe that “taking into account Ukraine’s candidate status for EU membership,” the European Commission should begin work on “a program for restructuring the Ukrainian agricultural sector.”
Background
Trade benefits for Ukraine were voted for twice.
Following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in June 2022, the EU introduced autonomous trade benefits allowing duty-free access for all Ukrainian goods into the EU. On June 5 this year, the duty-free trade regime ends. And member countries have had difficult discussions on its renewal until 2025. The main reason for the protracted negotiations was the import of agricultural products from Ukraine, which, according to some member countries, had a negative impact on their domestic market and local agribusiness.
In March, during tripartite negotiations, the European Parliament and the European Council, through the mediation of the European Commission, reached a preliminary agreement to extend duty-free trade with Ukraine, provided that the European Commission will promptly respond in cases where imports of agricultural products from Ukraine lead to distortions in the markets of EU member states. The mechanism for emergency braking of imports of “sensitive” agricultural products should be applied taking into account the indicators for 2022 and 2023. The European Parliament supported this proposal during its March session.
However, at the request of Poland and France, this agreement was revised. Warsaw and Paris insisted that when calculating the permitted indicators for the import of Ukrainian agricultural products, data for the pre-war 2021 were taken into account, that is, when goods from Ukraine were not subject to preferential treatment, and therefore the volume of Ukrainian imports was relatively low. Since this proposal was criticized by Germany, the Netherlands and the Baltic countries, a compromise was found to take into account only the second half of 2021.
Why is this important now?
The current April session of the European Parliament is the last one before the elections, which are due to take place in the EU in early June. This was the last chance for MEPs to vote on extending duty-free trade before the composition of the governing bodies of European institutions is reset. Now the proposal to extend trade preferences for Ukraine must be formally approved by the European Council, and it should come into force immediately after June 5, 2024.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.