Negotiators from the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached an agreement on the recovery of customs duties on large quantities of agricultural products exported from Ukraine, BTA reported.
This will refer specifically to eggs, poultry and sugar, corn, oats, semolina and honey. In the future, there should be a certain quota of these goods that can be sold duty-free in the EU. Once this amount is reached, duties will be re-introduced.
For the time being, the suspension of duties will continue to apply to wheat imports, although under certain conditions it will be possible to take measures. Under the interim agreement, these rules will apply until June 2025.
The agreement was reached after a series of protests by farmers across the union. The EU lifted tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural exports in 2022 in a show of solidarity to support Ukraine’s economy after the start of a large-scale Russian invasion.
The bloc initially planned to extend until 2025 the period of the repeal, which was due to expire in June 2024, despite major disputes over Ukraine’s exports of grain and other goods to the EU.
At the end of January, the European Commission announced that duty-free imports will continue, but the so-called “emergency brake”, i.e. taxation on the import of large quantities of certain goods – eg chicken, sugar and eggs.
On May 3 last year, at the insistence of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, a ban was introduced on the entry of four types of Ukrainian grain goods into the markets of these countries. The reason was allegations of large quantities of sunflower imported into this market. The ban was lifted in the fall.
