Poland will not lift the indefinite ban on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, despite the new EU-Ukraine trade agreement. This ban applies to wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, flour, oilcake, and bran.
Poland will not lift the indefinite ban on imports of agri-food products from Ukraine, even despite the entry into force of the updated trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine. This is reported by UNN with reference to the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland.
Details
This refers to the import of agri-food products from Ukraine, in particular, wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, flour, oilcake, and bran. The ministry noted that the new agreement does not take into account all the provisions proposed by Poland, which were supposed to minimize the potential negative impact of imports of Ukrainian goods on Polish agriculture.
At the same time, the new agreement provides for the following mechanisms:
- maintaining the system of entry prices for imports of vegetables and fruits from Ukraine, which means protection against imports at excessively low prices;
- limiting duty-free imports of sensitive goods such as sugar, poultry meat, or eggs to the level of tariff quotas. These quotas will be increased (quotas for the EU to access the Ukrainian market will also be increased).
- introduction of a bilateral safeguard clause, which allows for the temporary withdrawal of tariff concessions granted by the agreement (we remind you that until now there was no such clause in the Agreement). According to Polish requirements, the clause can also be applied in case of market disruptions at the level of an individual member state;
- making the granting of additional concessions to Ukraine dependent on bringing Ukrainian legislation – within three years – into compliance with EU requirements regarding pesticide residues and animal welfare;
- implementation of the requirement to return to the principle of reciprocity in trade; quotas granted to the EU for export to the Ukrainian market will increase to a level no lower than the quotas granted to Ukraine. This rule applies to pork, poultry, and sugar.
In addition, the new agreement provides for partial liberalization of exports of goods from the EU to the Ukrainian market, including dairy products important for Polish exports.
Recall
Earlier, UNN reported that Poland detained a batch of more than 58 tons of tomato paste from Ukraine. The inspection banned the import due to the detection of mold in 36% of the batch.
